


Straight, No Chaser

by sazzafraz



Series: 306verse [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 12:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5827933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sazzafraz/pseuds/sazzafraz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is something amiss at the 5th</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. (What a) Wonderful World

**Author's Note:**

> Alternatively: how many ways can one woman spell the word lieutenant wrong. 
> 
> This is the only stand alone work left over from the now defunct 306verse and as such a few little details are left open ended. As always if this work needs more warnings please let me know and they'll go up straight away. 
> 
> On another note in converting this fic something went fucked and every single apostrophe jumped around the page and for random words with apostrophes to be substituted with the word can't. I am 90% sure I've fixed this problem but shoot me a message if I missed something glaringly obvious.

At the very top of the list of things Shinji is fucking livid about when it comes to Aizen and the 5th it's his moronic decision to turn it into a mini fucking kido corps.   

He’s not great at kido. Defense or offense. He won't die or kill someone accidentally the way Ichigo is bound to someday. He learnt his shit properly all the way up to the mid-sixties like any half decent Captain should. Add a century locked in a box with one of the kido masters of his time and he's better than most at fighting it. 

None of that makes him suitable to a run a division that for some unforeseeable reason has managed to mangle it's skillset and specialise in a field already covered by at least three other divisions. 

The 5th have decent hakuda, decent hohou and very unsteady zanjutsu. If they were to go to war with either the 4th or the 6th they'd be utterly decimated. The 4th Shinji could take on the chin, no one passes by Unohana’s hands and comes out a wimp on the other side, but losing to a Kuchiki especially one who has the gall to act as if Shinji is the interloper when he has been, technicalities of Visored-ship aside, in service for longer than the chit has been alive is galling. Shinji has plans to fix this. It won't be pleasant but god knows he'll sleep better when his people are capable of mounting an adequate defense. 

“Captain?” 

And here’s step one. 

Momo Hinamori sticks her head in, a spider falling onto her head and beginning its journey down her bangs. She frowns as she always does when she comes by her office which he's commandeered until such time as he see's fit to give it back. He didn't immediately move into the big office forcing everyone down the chain of command into increasingly ridiculous work arrangements until he can muster enough interest to move into his old digs. Aizen, he figures, had none of the same issues. 

She blows the spider out of the way coming to stand at attention in front of him. "I've sorted through the applicants for advanced swordsmanship and I"ll have the final list to you by this evening. The 8th has offered to do blended kido sessions with us again and i've tentatively started on a schedule for that. The 7th seat and her squad are back from East Rukongai, no casualties and minimal injuries already being seen to."

He doesn't reply. It's funny, the habits Aizen didn't pick up from him. None of this, besides whether or not he had anyone in the 4th, would have been of any interest to the Captain he'd been before. Sure he's a meddler, he's paranoid and nosy but he's not interested in those kinds of details. Although if he had been he wouldn’t have been so easily duped. It’d be just like the bastard to take the blueprints of Shinji's personality and tweak them in just the right way, make himself the kind of captain that would have seen through his own bullshit. 

What an annoying thought. 

"Captain?" Momo steps forward firmly putting his mind elsewhere.

Momo is cute. If it weren’t for the fact that little Hitsugaya looks like a nightmare to fight he might consider giving it a go in a good twenty to thirty years. Cute and tough are, after all, some of his favourite weaknesses when it comes to women. Turning it over in his head, he misses the first two of Momo's polite little coughs. When their eyes meet she avoids flinching back by force of practice. There’s probably too much person and not enough Captain in his posture when he gives her his full attention. "Yes?"

Momo's hands fidget and Shinji grimaces. Momo's hands tighten and whiten, smile coming up as a defence. "If there was something you needed of me?"

It's too late to not scare her so he lets a measured amount of regard through, looking her over thoroughly. Momo deferentially lowers her gaze. Shinji isn’t irritated because that would be beneath him. She has reason to tread softly. They aren’t used to each other. Just because the other women in his life have never for a moment been deferential outside of battle is not a reason to be annoyed with Momo. Hiyori would have hit him the same way she does everything. Lisa is a master at this kind of power play. Mashiro marches entirely to the beat of her own drum. They’re his girls. Literally a different breed.

_ Tough and cute _ , he reminds himself, _ and the only way out of this mess. _

In time she'll bite back, or at least look him in the eyes.

She can't sense the shift of his thoughts but she can feel the shift of his reiatsu. She sets her shoulders and then ruins the show of force by ducking her head down. Instead of power she gives off an air of contriteness, but judging by the lines of her body that power is real and there. He's just got to get the fire out of her. Sooner or later he'll win her over.

Now is not then though and right now Shinji has an almost lethal level of power over her.

Shinji has literal life or death power over the  _ 5th _ , and not in the way most Captains would like. Whether or not the 5th is disbanded and rebuilt entirely relies entirely on him and whether he can claw back the heart and pride of his people. He'd be daunted by the task but  _ find the heart  _ was more or less what he had to do with the Visored. "Need to go through his office."

"The office? Do you need me to tell you what's important? What of his- What things are necessary?"

He needs to see how she does with him in confined spaces as a gauge of what kind of monster Aizen was but that’ll work too.

She takes the lead as they walk to Aizen’s old office. He watches her great the members of their division with a smile and a very stiff back. If anyone notices they don’t mention it. She stops by the office door and flings it open with the sort of carelessness that can only be practiced. Aizen put his office in a dinky little storeroom on the second floor to show how selfless and suffering he was. Shinji gives a derisive sniff. When you’re a captain you get to be ostentatious and difficult. The room itself is bare and smells lightly of some sort of perfume. The office itself is very traditional and therefore boring. 

"Hmm, I really don't approve of what he's done with the place."

That makes her indignant. "We’re very proud of the 5th, sir."

"I meant the room."

"Oh." She clears her throat. "Oh?"

He clicks his tongue. "Not an ounce of style."

Momo's eyes widen comically. "Oh."

Cute. Shinji shrugs. "Not a lot of imagination going around here in general but this is just sad. Not a bit of personality."

Momo bites her lip, eyes darting about. It's easy to guess what she's thinking:  _ Would it have helped if I’d noticed? _ The answer to that is no. Aizen was never that kind of evil.

"Where should we start, Captain?"

Even as she says it she's moving to make him somewhere comfortable. She knows with some sort of empathic sense that he’d prefer to avoid sitting under the window. He wants to be diagonal to the door and away from the breeze floating through the window. Every move she makes is purposeful and produces whatever result she wants with as little fuss and theatrics as possible. If she knew he liked bitter drinks and heavily spiced teas she’d find a way to make it available. If she knew he hated cream based foods, paisley and house music she'd make sure they never crossed his path. It's not the calculated response of someone trying to figure you out. Someone trying to pry your regard and your secrets out for their own purposes.  

Momo is an anticipator. Maybe at some point he'll tell her how much Aizen wasn’t.

She guides him to a seat behind the bare desk, pulling out boxes and files and knick knacks describing them as she goes. Most of it is shit he doesn't need or care about. At the bottom of one of the boxes is a flat black metal box. Momo throws it almost carelessly onto the desk. The lid cracks open revealing a small set of silver studs, a beautiful glass and gold sparrow, an emerald carefully set in a white gold rose, a ratty old bookmark with a picture of mountains on it and a narcissus flower encased in amber. He picks up the sparrow and holds it up to the light. It's filled with some nearly clear liquid. 

Momo brightens. "Oh that belongs to Suzume Koki. She was our 7th seat for awhile. Then she died. She went away." Momo's head bounces up and down. "Yes, she left."

Okay, weird.

The little gold eyes of the sparrow glint in the light. Instinct makes his hand go for his sword, Sakanade hissing and humming in his ears with her familiar backwards words. The air in front of his eyes shimmers with the feel of illusions, of the world sliding around. There is something fucked up about this- 

He puts the bird down on his desk and returns the black metal box to It's place in the bottom of the box. "Maybe we should take a break from this."

"There’s paperwork."

Shinji sighs.

Momo tilts her head. "There’s...a good bar?"

He really should be responsible. "Go get us a late lunch."

She nods her assent. "Is there anything you particularly hate?"

"I wouldn’t get started on that before you have to." He says ruefully. "Nothing too heavy."

Momo gives him a small smile. "I'll be just a moment."

He listens to her go reaching out when she's just sliding out of his immediate awareness to "snatch" a piece of her reiatsu. He cradles it gently, just long enough to add more depth to his imprint of her reiatsu. As he lets it go a little bit of lightning shoots across his senses. Sakanade laughs inside him overwhelmed in the middle by his hollows derision. Shinji joins her laughter even as he's still doing his best to understand the shape of his lieutenants soul without so much as asking her a question. There's more shots of lightning across the bow; Tobiume certainly understands what he's doing. He and Sakanade are closer than most average shinigami are to their swords; first because he has never been anything but thorough, second because his hollow demands it of him and thirdly because parts of himself where taken and she was the fastest way to get them back. For not entirely dissimilar reasons Tobiume is just as in tune with her wielder. There is a part of him that is very sorry for that.  

Still, Sakanade is not a laughing spirit at the best of times and the fact that her main reaction to Momo and Tobiume has been sincere amusement is as close to a ringing endorsement of his decision as is likely to appear.  

It's not like coming back was easy. It's not like he's sure this is the best play. But the fact is that Yamamoto is very good at making powerful men feel responsibility and for better or worse Shinji was never good at not being right at the sharp end of things. Kensei missed it like a limb and he thanks whatever is to the left of the Soul King that he was the one to fall with his lieutenant and that Mashiro has given him a lot to manage. Rose was the odd bet; new to his post the first time. Even with this being the generation of wunderkinds Shinji would not put the smoking crater of the 3rd in even slightly unsteady hands. Rose is exceptional; he's also a solid 190 years younger than Shinji. Having seen it all with his own eyes, though, he can get why you'd put someone of Rose’s sheer humanity in charge of crafting some sort of home out of the 3rd. 

That's not the elephant in the room though. That elephant is Hiyori sized and Love sized and Lisa and Hachi sized...Only half the monsters put their collars and bells on. While he wholeheartedly believes the old warrior in Yamamoto will never betray his promise to leave them alone, Central 46, the Onmitsukido and whatever conspiracies are still dwelling among the powerful in Soul Society made no assurances. It's his -very self appointed, imagine the belting he'd get if he actually told them he was somewhat back to his old tricks- job to figure out which way the wind is going to blow and blow back before the storm hits.      

He closes his eyes and leans back against the wall. So many threads to sort out, so many to  _ pull _ . He really  _ should _ do his work...

He drifts off enough to be surprised by Momo's return. Who knew she'd be so stealthy. She's not disapproving, she's not much of anything right now, and fair enough, it would have been too human of Aizen to mess up by napping or sighing. He smiles at her, not mean at all, and she sits carefully balancing her bags of food. There are bowls appearing from somewhere and delicious udon coming from containers.  

When she's got them both settled he asks, "How are you finding it?"

"Finding what sir?"

"The change of season." He gestures to the changing landscape outside, new spring growth growing strong and summer winds just finding their pace. "It's much more consistent in Japan at this time of year. I must have forgotten how quickly it turns here."

"Only in Japan, sir?" She asks instead of answering. 

"i've been pretty much everywhere that has working plumbing, It's true, but I can't stay anywhere for long that takes milk in their tea like it's normal."

She smiles. "I was stationed in Finland once."

"Why?" 

"Cap-  _ He-  _ was testing my in field leadership skills." She lets it float away, face closing off. There's not a lot he can do to pull it back, they'll be running into this spectre all the time. "Was it very different?"

"Yes." He says gratefully. "You would not believe the atrocities of French cuisine."

They carefully fence between his memories of travelling and her many exploits with her friends. She's not nasty minded but she is devious enough to make him feel a little bit better about having her in his care. Everything goes well through clean up and through the first few stacks of paperwork. Momo deftly intercepts before he accidentally signs away their toothbrushes for the next year. Paperwork has changed but only enough to make him overconfident. He manages to make her smile, twice, even as she has to sign Aizen's name as her previous captain on the ten million forms that require that.     

At a certain point, when they are no longer doing work just moving it around to make it look smaller, she points at the little gold and glass bird he'd put on his desk. "What's that on your desk?"

"It's just a little trinket." He says, assuming it's some sort of set up. He twirls his pen expertly around one finger and waits to see where she goes with this. 

"i've never seen it before."

He stops twirling his pen. Momo is doodling a symbol in the corner of her form which would be fine if she were a doodler. Her writing is all over the page, sometimes in triplicate in the same place. The symbol is repeated over and over again. 

"Hmm? Earlier you said it belonged to Suzume Koki."

"Who?" Her eyes are feverishly looking between the little glass and gold bird and the paper in her hand. "Who?" 

"The woman who used to be 7th seat."

Momo smiles at him. Her lips are wrong, drooping oddly to one side. Her hands jerk hard, paper falling to the floor, ink flying. Eyes glassy and blank, she looks at him, and says. "Sorry Captain, I have no idea who that is."

\--

Shinji sneaks into the 3rd a long while after dark. Momo is in the 4th. Whatever was triggered by seeing that bird quickly turned into a full dissociative episode. Unohana put up with him for approximately 15 minutes and then had Isane throw him out. He's not the kind of leader to fuss with his subordinates health, especially not in a world that houses Unohana, but in that moment where Momo fell apart it was a little too hard not to see Hiyori's severed body. Just because the wound is internal does not mean it isn't as severe. He has to be grateful though. In the cool dark of the 3rds gardens and hallways he can admit there really is nothing he can do for that kind of wound. 

Rose has already refurbished his office. There's his desk and his Lieutenants, a low table for tea scattered with interest magazines from the Living World, one tasteful couch, flowers on Rose's desk. It's a much more organic feel than Shinji is used to. Since Rose isn't here he parks his ass on the couch and stretches out.

Few people pass Rose's door. After a fashion he realises it's because he's pushing out with his reiatsu and forcing everyone away. Clearly he is not as calm as he's forcing himself to pretend. With more effort than he'd like to admit he wrangles both himself, the ever forward Sakanade, his hollow and the overwhelming rush of his own guilt into a tight ball and pushes it far enough down that it can no longer affect his reiatsu.   

Sometime after that Rose appears, sweeping into the room and not stopping until he's reached his desk. He's done something with his hair again and while it looks good it also makes him look a little bit like the lead of a romance novel. "Shinji you are  _ distressing  _ Izuru."

Shinji raises an eyebrow.

Rose scowls, unlike him, and waves to the door. The 3rd's Lieutenant is sitting in perfect seiza in the entrance. "My Kira, Shinji. This is a terrible first impression."

"He was in Karakura." Shinji says dismissively as he sits up just enough to see Kira. "Fucking asshole."

"Shinji."

"Not you, sorry." He says insincerely. "More trouble at the 5th."

Kira nods. "I won't tell anyone. Is Lieutenant Hinamori okay?"

"Are you friends?"

"We went to academy together."

He nods. "She's fine, or will be." 

"What happened?"

He tells them, politer than he would if it was just Rose. Kira's face is solemn but Shinji gets the feeling he just looks like that. 

"Who fucks around with their Division like this?" He spits.

Rose frowns, glancing at Kira. "Shinji."

"It's okay." Kira says. Which is more like  _ I'm okay.  _

"I'm gonna kill him." Shinji throws his hands in the air. "In what world is this acceptable."

"He's immortal." Rose holds his tongue, focus still on Kira's comfort. Otherwise he would have been quick to say  _ this world, the one with all this power and no responsibility.  _ It's an old argument among them. 

"I'll trick him into telling Hiyori that she's flat and her ponytails are ugly. Sheer violence will win out."

"Not one of your finest days." Rose gestures for Kira to come out of the hallway. "Tea, Kira?"

Kira moves into the room, sliding the door closed behind him. "I don't want to intrude." 

"Don't worry, Shinji has already done that. We might as well follow the pace of his evening.'  

"Um." Kira"s eyes are wide as saucers. "I'll go fetch an extra cup and some food."

As Kira leaves he checks in with his captain. Rose's face is the calm indulgent one he has never once worn around the Visored. It takes some digging but Shinji can recall some bright kid a good sixty years ago, a pickpocket, who'd taken Rose's wallet. The kid had assumed Rose was the easiest target. Instead of losing his calm or scaring him the way Hiyori or Kensei might have done Rose pulled and plucked the kid apart until he handed the wallet back over grateful for whatever it was Rose had said. 

Rose allows his face to shift to something warmer. Kira nods and leaves.  

Shinji stretches his legs out."You like this one."

"He's prettier than Iba. We haven't been together long enough for him to find my ways irritating rather than charming." Rose frowns. "Gin was cruel to him."

"Lot of that going around here."

"Out with it." Rose says impatiently. "Whatever it is you don't want anyone to hear."

Shinji pauses. "What kind of cruel?"

Rose sighs. "Of the many things I wish Seireitei would adopt I have to say the idea of social services and crisis centres are very near the top."

"Workplace seminars against sexual abuse and domestic violence?" Shinji grins. "Imagine the Captain Commander signing off on that."

"It would be good to have something." Rose has very strong opinions on the failures of society to take responsibility for the vulnerable. "It's a matter of honour."

"Unohana would be the best one to ask." 

"Why are you asking? Did Aizen..."

"No," Shinji clicks his tongue.  "I don't think so. But I can't figure out what he did do. There's  _ something  _ really wrong but I can't see it."

"That was his ability." Rose says ruefully. "With him gone though you're cleaning out the bodies, as it were."

"Bad way to put it."

"I apologise." He says insincerely. "You can't fight him now."

"Sure I can." 

"There's a saying about dead horses."

"There's also one about counting your eggs."

"Have we?" Rose says gently. "I know you found some peace while we were away."

"We were waiting."

"We were not and you know it." Rose raises his cup. "We knew 40 years ago that a miracle would have to take place for us to get justice."

"And it did." Ichigo sized and furious. "And now we're going to need another few to keep going-"

"Or some faith-"

"In the Central 46-?"

"In your division." Rose says firmly. "Or did he take that too?"

There"s nothing nice to say to that. "It's my job and I’m going to do it right."

Rose considers him for a long solemn moment. "You know Yamamoto’s rules. There"s nothing to say that he did it wrong."

Shinki clicks his tongue. "Until the treason."

Rose stays on him. "You know what I mean." 

He does. Damn the lack of accountability Yamamoto asks for from his captains. 

Kira returns with nikuman and his own cup. He places it on the table and backs off. Almost shy, he asks. "What did I miss?" 

Rose sips his tea. "Ruminations on how to beat Aizen at his own game."

Kira's eyes go very wide. 

Shinji rises from the couch with a groan. "Well I don't mean to be the guy who says shit like "back in my day"-"

Rose snorts. "You"ve always meant to be that man. Everything about you just screams-"

He waves it away. "You know and I know that they're all too young to be Captains and the second we run into something more hardcore-"

"Like the Arrancar? And I became Captain very young, remember?"

"You're a freak." He says simply. "Just because they're all getting stronger faster doesn't mean half of them have  _ served  _ long enough to understand what it means. Soifon and that Kuchiki were barely out of childhood a hundred years ago. That kid at the 10th is the same age as my lieutenant."

"Younger." Kira adds. He takes a nikuman from the plate and takes a small bite. "Momo is the same age as me."  

"See,' Shinji waves his hand expansively. "half these kids are well on their way to bankai with no idea of the kind of things Yamamoto will ask of them. You weren't serving during the Quincy extermination."

"I  _ was _ around for all that business in the 306th. You really don't think Aizen counts?" Rose says.

"No.' Shinji says firmly. "His plans were personal."

"I disagree." Rose crosses his arms. Kira makes a weird abortive gesture. "Do you have a question, Kira?"

Kira frowns and looks to the ground. "I know it's naive of me but I never really considered that worse things than Aizen had happened so recently."

"Depends on how you draw the scale." Shinji says. "Is genocide worse than biological warfare? Is personally committing 5000 murders worse than impersonally erasing 10,000 lives?" 

Rose favors Kira with a look. "For what I hope are obvious reasons you can't discuss this with those below captain rank."

Kira frowns. "Yes sir." 

Shinji sighs. "Ah hell. I am much more fun at parties than this would suggest, kid."

Rose raises an eyebrow. "How could you be when you were always too busy fussing with your hair to show up?"

"You cannot possibly say that."

"It is the truth and I am a truth teller." He winks at Kira. "Right, Kira?"

"As if," Shinji rises properly off the couch and takes two nikuman. It's time to go now unless he wants to spend the whole night fencing with Rose. He eats one in a few bites and turns to the door, "you’re a damn annoying person sometimes."

"You can't choose your family." Rose grins. "Goodnight."

He doesn't bother looking back. "Night."

He knows the moment someone starts tailing him. Oddly the sensations are smooth, practiced and efficient, if he didn't know it couldn't be the 2nd he'd assume it was one of theirs. It  _ can't  _ be the 2nd because they know how to hide their reiatsu better. It's not a lot more than darkness, the stillness of a cold morning transitioning to an empty clear sky, then the abrupt end of something. Even more conceptual than usual. Usually the snob in him loves having his wires crossed when it comes to reiatsu sensing; instead of seeing colours or smelling things he see's pictures. Sometimes he'd rather not have a headache trying to figure out what it's all meant to mean. 

"What is it?" He throws behind him.

Kira takes a deep breath. "I was thinking about what you said and I hope I'm not overstepping by sharing my thoughts," he blows out a breath, "if you'd like to hear them, that is."

"Alright."

Kira hesitates. "Wouldn't the best way to see Aizen clearly be to step back?"   

"In what way?"

"Sleight of hand works best when you're close. One hand tricks you into not seeing the other. It's easier to see things clearly when you don't let how close you are cloud your vision." Kira says quietly. "It's easier to be led-"

"You may be right." Better stop him now before the kid starts pouring his guts out. Shinji turns and takes a quick step to press his finger to Kira's forehead. "Gold star." 

Kira touches his forehead and frowns. "Thank you?"

Shinji smiles alarmingly and flash steps away towards the barracks. He pauses at the edge of the 5ths man made pond to eat his nikuman.   

Soul Society is a mess. Seireitei is a vicious one. There's games in games in games, most playing out over generations and centuries. It's slow as molasses here. It's no surprise to Shinji, none at all, that it was the flash and intensity of Ichigo's spirit that threw so many of them for a loop. Before Aizen he wouldn't have said he was a political player but he at the very least  _ knew  _ what was going on around him. After Aizen and with this whole new batch of captains there's a little itch on the back of his neck, something telling him to get in while the getting's good. Whole new possibilities are opening up now. There's not a lot of bones for a somewhat old dog, dismissed from the pack and brought back only when said pack was in danger of starving during the winter. But what that old dog has is a long memory and an eye for the long game. 

And there's only three Captain's playing the long game. 

\--

Honestly Shinji would rather be stabbed than talk to Ukitake and Kyouraku at the same time. 

He'd take a stabbing, a beating. Hiyori before dinner and after Love told her she was boyish. He'd fight Sakanade for bankai again. He'd eat borscht again.   

No one besides Unohana, Ukitake and Kyouraku has survived serving at captain level in the Gotei for more than 300 years. At a stretch you could include Sasakibe but it's very clear that that man considers himself to be in service to Yamamoto first. Besides these exceptions everyone dies, retires or goes insane. There is nothing else. Even in the Kuchiki controlled 6th where ascension is fairly mundane and routine no one has ever served as captain for more than 200 years and that was only due to a war in the clans. The fact that these three are largely pleasant people does not undercut the fact that they hold more power between them in every single way than everyone else combined. 

In his more restless moments Shinji has wondered why  _ they  _ didn't do something about Aizen.

But he has to go, at the very least he has to try.

He's passing through the 10th. The streets are filled with families and shops. In the postmortem of the final battle he remembers seeing the footage of Kyouraku clearly stating to his opponent that the 10ths captain would surpass him within a 100 years. Hitsugaya is strong, prodigally strong, but he has no concept at all of the myriad definitions of the word power and like young Kira he has no idea of what Soul Society will do and what it will create for it's own survival.  

Ukitake is keeping himself alive through the sheer power of his own existence and has honed that power as necessary. Unohana can kill anything that draws breathe and heal it well enough to kill again. Kyouraku has powers so complex and whimsical he can only be safely deployed when you no longer care for the method of your outcome. 

These are the devils he's dealing with. Hopefully it won't be Kyouraku first. 

Just as the thought completes itself there's rich wine and dying blossoms on the wind, spread like perfume on an elegant womans collarbones. Sweet sweat, decay and excess. Kyoraku's voice follows his reiatsu brushing a polite  _ I see you  _ across his neck. Sakanade stirs from her nest to answer. There's her claws against his skin and her voice in his head telling him that today he and Katen are in agreement and that he should move with care.   

Not a second later the man himself appears tugging his hat down and moving with ease through the busy street. Kyouraku smiles, a pleasant if empty one. "Hirako, you're so far from home!"

"It's a nice enough walk." Shinji replies as Kyouraku falls into step. "How's Nanao?"

"How do you know my Nanao?"

"Lisa's Nanao." Shinji says tartly. "She hasn't told you about our little get togethers?"

Something mean comes into Kyouraku"s eyes chased away by his trademark geniality. "Oh? I can't believe she'd hold out on me."

"Nothing like that. She's friends with Momo." Shinji shrugs just to get the heat off him a little. "They have little get togethers in the garden near my office. I keep an eye on the friends of my friends."

Kyouraku raises a eyebrow as if to say  _ of course, because that always goes well.  _

Shinji refrains from sighing. Usually he and Kyouraku get along like a house on fire. Something about two sneaky bastards and a lot of sake creates a natural affinity. Lately every conversation lands badly between them. It would be a prime time to make a joke about something being ill at home but that is a thought that would have the sensible parts of Seireitei shaking in their boots. Shinji knows like anyone who's survived a century or two in the Gotei that the Captain of the 8th needs three things in life: whatever charming girl they've dug up to play the part of Lieutenant, a variety of alcohol and drinking partners and Ukitake.  

Kyouraku waits for the next line reaching up to fuss with his hat as they walk. 

Lisa once described working with him as being like dancing on knives. Intricate, precise. One poor move and you'd be sliced, one graceless step and you'd split yourself open. It doesn't count for the birds, she'd said, the girls and boys he kept around him for warmth and comfort. Tittering, singing, fucking, drinking. There was only one thing more sacred in his heart than the 8th and he'd turn himself inside out before harming either, but everything and everyone else was on the table. Lisa isn't the most effusive person at the best of times and they'd all known that saying that much had cost her. 

Shinji sighs. "I talked to Lisa this morning." 

"Oh?"

"She's having trouble getting through to Nanao." He lets it sound apologetic, like that was why he made the first comment.

There must be something to Lisa's talk of birds because a certain level of hostility fades from Kyouraku's demeanor. "My Nanao is stubborn. Then so is my Lisa."

Not entirely forgiven. Shinji inclines his head in acceptance. "I have some mighty uncomfortable questions for you and Ukitake."

Kyouraku raises an eyebrow. "That was quick." 

"I don't care much for politics especially for all the pointless fucking around. I'm not interested in anything but keeping my men and women together long enough to purge Aizen's poison and I ain't leaving the 5th until I do."     

"A romantic notion."

"You're the only romantic around here. I see nothing much has happened in your story since I was exiled."

Kyouraku pouts. "A great many tragedies have taken place. There was a battle on the edge of a cliff. And a wedding."

"Weddings a tragedy now?"

"You've been to too few of them." Kyouraku pouts harder. Before Shinji can reply his entire face lightens. "Ah, Jushiro!"

Straight as an arrow the deep ocean sweeps across him; dense, heavy and moving so fast it might as well be the wind. Ukitake is calm and well because Shinji can't see the threat of thunder. To his surprise there is someone else there not quite as familiar but far more welcome. Plums and new fabric layered over ice. A womans long fingered ivory skinned hand holding a calligraphy brush. There's something mutable about it, too weak and too strong at once. It floats out from a popular noodle bar where two distinctive heads of hair are sitting and chatting. 

Kyouraku walks straight up to them. "Well this is a lot closer than I expected to find you."

Ukitake and Rukia turn as one with noodles in their mouths. Ukitake recovers first. He waves them in and gestures for them to sit down with them. Their table is littered with empty bowls split neatly between the two of them. Ukitake smiles sheepishly. "We were having a bit of a competition."

"A food competition?" Shinji says amused. While it looks like Rukia may have a hollow leg, Ukitake has an entire hollow body somewhere that needs to be constantly replenished. 

"Captain Hirako!" Rukia immediately bows. Ukitake looks at her indulgently, and yeah, in no time at all she will be wearing the lieutenant's badge.

"Rukia." He adds the dark circles under her eyes and the growing snow scent of what has to be her bankai to the list of  _ "things I'm going to have to tell Ichigo when he gets his shit together because god knows I can't trust anyone here to tell him anything useful" _ . Ukitake looks at him vaguely disapprovingly although for the life of him he can't figure out why. "He bit the bullet and made you Lieutenant yet?" 

She blushes. "Captain!" 

Shinji puts on one of his moderately mean smiles. "Well if you ever think of a transfer..." 

"Thank you but Hinamori said she'd fight anyone who tried to take it from her." Rukia says cheerfully. She bows to Kyouraku. "Good afternoon, Captain."

Kyouraku smiles and tips his hat. "Kiyone and Sentarou aren"t here?"

"Sword drills." Ukitake says looking to Rukia. "You're almost late, Rukia."

"Yes sir." She nods to each of them and smiles at her captain. He smiles back as she leaves.

Shinji hums. Someone arrives to remove the debris of the table. "She seems okay."

Ukitake smiles proudly. "Rukia is very strong. Tea?"

"I'd know about that."

"Hmm, young Hiyori, Mashiro and Lisa."

"Mashiro is Kensei's burden." 

"But not Lisa and Hiyori?"

"That's..." Complicated. "Different."

"Many strong people in the 5th."

"Could be stronger."

"That's the aim of any good captain."

"The pride is indescribable."

"That it is."

"Ah, didn't your 17th seat just transfer up 8 whole seats into  the 7th?"

Ukitake beams. "I couldn't be more proud."

Ukitake then recounts a long winding tail about his 17th seat who battled great, clearly fictionalised odds, to reach a paperwork position in another division. Kyouraku decides to one up him by telling a definitely fictionalised story of his 20th seat emerging into the 6th as a 9th seat. Which has to be bullshit, really, Kuchiki would never accept someone from the bottom end of anyone's roster and especially not the 8ths.

This goes on for sometime. Shinji almost misses the shift into seriousness. It starts with Ukitake spinning his tale back to Rukia, who, alright, did go from unseated to lieutenant in a snap of fingers, but Shinji likes her and is willing to simply accept it. Kyouraku replies with a twist in Nanao's backstory and then exploits of his previous lieutenants. Lisa figures prominently.   

"Of course she taught little Nanao all the words I wasn't meant to say! Made for a nasty surprise but I suppose that was one of the reasons I settled on her for my own," Kyouraku laughs. "Nanao here and my lovely Lisa far away in the Living World. What would it be like to have both?"

Shinji holds his scowl at the possessive. There's a special kind of nastiness he's keeping locked away for a different moment. It's one thing for Shinji to lose his jazz collection or Hiyori to lose the division she no longer loved and an entirely different one for Lisa to grieve for her surrogate sister/daughter. Lisa's bouts of apathy are not borne from anything less than total devastation. It's not Kyouraku that weathered that, it's not  _ him  _ that watched over Lisa as she destroyed everything at the realization that she was  _ never  _ going to see Nanao again. It's not _ him  _ who had to find something, anything to fill the Captain shaped void Kyouraku likes to dig into his lieutenants. It's all well and good to try to play for possession now that Aizen is defeated. It's all well and good to try and pick up those frayed tethers. But there are parts of the Visored that Shinji will never give back. A century is a long time to be the only things each other have. It's a long time to be family. 

Even for those who live forever.

Shinji smiles. "Lisa is a singular woman."

Kyouraku looks at him like he's a particularly irritating child. Ukitake is not much better. 

There's a pointed trickle of reiatsu aimed at his head and then there is a forceful push. Among the many things he has not missed at all about Soul Society is the occasional complete crossing of wires in his brain that comes from trying to process too many powerful different reiatsu at once. Children's whispers are drowned by the roar of the ocean. There's wind, hail, three voices that might as well be one. He clears it away as much as he can. Ugh. And there's no aspirin. "This would be a good time to recall that i've never had the ability to communicate that way."

"Ah." Ukitake scratches the back of his head. 

"Well it has been awhile." Kyouraku gulps down his tea. "You might as well come out with it."

"There's something amiss at the 5th."

"In what way?" Ukitake murmurs. 

"Do you remember a woman called Suzume Koki?" Shinji asks. 

"Not that I can recall, Shunsui?"

"Nope. Was she cute?"

"She's missing," Shinji says seriously, "and not a single person in my division can remember anything about her."

Kyouraku hums to himself. "Do you suspect the 2nd?"  

"She's not in the Maggot's Nest. When I asked Momo she had a full dissociative episode."    

"Well." Kyouraku says, not unkindly.

Shinji grimaces."Sorry, I should be clear, she caught sight of something in Aizen"s office that triggered a dissociative response. That'd be one thing, I know she's not healed yet, but when I questioned the 6th and 8th seats they had the same response."  

"I see." 

Yeah, thanks. "Well, if anyone would know..."

Ukitake turns to his companion. "There was..."

Kyouraku shakes his head. "No. That was something else."

"Unless it wasn't."

Kyouraku scowls. "It certainly was."

Ukitake turns back to Shinji. "Have you asked Kurotsuchi? He has the entire Gotei bugged."

"That's why I make sure to always have my best kimono on." Kyouraku wiggles his eyebrows with a leer, "and to look my very best with it off." 

"I'd thought about it." Shinji shrugs. "But we never got along. Personalities didn't mesh."

"I can't imagine why." Ukitake says politely.

Since Shinji knows when he's being had he simply drinks more tea.

"But he's not the only one who would know." Kyouraku says pointedly.

"Hmm." So that's whom exactly? 

Kyouraku sighs exasperatedly. "We're so close by too."

Shinji drinks more tea.

Ukitake smiles paternalistically. Kyouraku looks bored. 

Shinji drinks yet more tea.

Ukitake laughs. "Shall we help then?"

"Shall we." Kyouraku mutters. "Shall  _ we? _ "

"A long time ago we thought something was wrong and we didn't make the correct choices." Ukitake says softly, pointedly. "Amends can be made."

"Mending." Kyouraku tilts his head back. "Damn everything but you are good at making me feel old, Jushiro."

"Good." Ukitake looks at the cup Shinji is still sipping from. "Within reason."

Shinji refrains from the smirk but allows himself the raised eyebrow. "Within  _ treason  _ did you say? I would never do something like that."

"You got what you came for." Kyouraku says witheringly. "Now, back to the more important topics: do you think I should grow a beard?" 

\--

Captains meetings are irregular because the Captain Commander doesn't care for them. For reasons of practicality they've been having them once a week to stay on top of the fallout from Aizen. It's been...taxing.

Captain's meetings are not exactly mandatory. During wartime or when Yamamoto calls a state of emergency everyone will show up. Outside of that it's a bit of a toss up. Fewer than six and it's just as likely that the Captain Commander will tell them to piss off. More than eight means that anyone who didn't show up will get the scare of a lifetime. There have been entire meetings only attended by four of them. Those are just uncomfortable. 

On days like today, when the Captain Commander is being particularly old fashioned and obstinate, Shinji reminds himself that the 2nd is zealous and he is damn sick of them hunting him so adding 'kido aided temper tantrum' to the list is unadvisable. It's all of them, every bloody captain in the whole damn Gotei standing in a damn hallway when they could be doing any damn thing else. It's fucking irritating. It's fucking around with his time.

After a fashion the door swings open and Sasakibe sticks his pointy head out. 

Luckily for Shinji's rapidly fraying temper, Sasakibe looks apologetic. "Just Captain's Kyouraku and Ukitake may enter. The rest will wait here."   

As they pass him Shinji's teeth almost start to grind. Yamamoto has called all of them here just to lock himself away with Ukitake and Kyouraku. 

About another hour after that is when he loses his patience.

"So are we getting this party started?" Shinji drawls. "'Cause this is a damning amount of time to spend in a hallway."

Soifon unclenches enough to mutter. "Be quiet." 

What a feat that was. Shinji rolls his shoulders and sighs. "Well I didn't exactly leave my comfy pad in the living world to dick around in this hallway so if we're not doing anything important..."

"Insolence." Kuchiki mutters to himself.

"Perhaps we should all take a break?" Unohana says. "Captain Hirako is right, it has been a long time since we've all been together like this. I will let the Captain Commander know why we've adjourned myself." 

Shinji refrains from gloating.  

"Yes." Komamura says. "We will reconvene after lunch."

Everyone shuffles off, Kensei's  _ thank fucking god  _ heard from a mile away. Since Mama raised a rude boy but not a dumb one, Shinji stays until after Unohana has told Yamamoto what they're doing. There's a flash of fire and an answering wave of that blackness that lives inside Unohana and then nothing at all. She returns just as serene as ever.  

Shinji smiles sheepishly. "Thanks." 

Unohana favours him with a long look and then begins to walk away. He stays a deferential half step behind her. "He has never been an unreasonable man, Hirako. And I don't recall you being one either."

"It's been a long century."

"You are not friendless or harmless. Here or in the living world." She turns her gaze on him, intent but not yet menacing. "It is something of a choice to be difficult."

"Not sure we agree on that."

Unohana sighs. "At the very least think of your division first. I am tired of that man's treachery weighing so heavily on all of us."

If it was anyone else he'd be pissed as hell about the suggestion he isn't thinking of the 5th.  

"Hirako?"

"Yeah." He waves his hand already entirely sick of the day. 

\--

Shinji has taken up pissing on Aizen's prized hydrangeas. 

Around about 3am every night he's stirred by his Hollow and the overwhelming urge to eat whoever is yummiest. When he was at home with the Visored this was easily solved by taking advantage of the few survival instincts inherent to the species. Most frequently the fact that powerful Hollows generally don't like to eat their pack. Other times he'd con Kensei, Lisa or Love into fighting him. For a few years Hiyori was the default but that got very tricky very fast. Now he lives with shinigami. Pretty, darling, nearly defenceless to him shinigami. It's wearying to say the least. 

So, 3am, he can't sleep, he can't fight anybody, he's not going to eat his division, frequently he has a full bladder. What is there left to do but piss on things that might have possibly given Aizen even an ounce of pleasure?

After the hydrangeas he wanders a bit. The 5th is home to some of the most beautiful nooks and crannys of Soul Society carefully crafted by the first captain of the division who was by all accounts a gorgeous, sick man responsible for great suffering and malice. In one of her more nostalgic moments Unohana had told him that he was the most perfect representation of Lily of the Valley she'd ever met.    

"A bit like you." She said with a smile.

To this day Shinji can't make heads or tails of that conversation.

Still, the 5th is stunning somedays. He takes a meandering walk towards the centre of the division with a vague recollection of a particularly nifty little bench where you can smell the incense burning from a temple all the way outside the walls. It's one of those once in a lifetime meshes of architecture, nature and coincidence. Shinji used to force every new recruit to have tea with him there before he advanced or dismissed them. Mostly to make them squirm. He is many things and easily amused is one of them.   

The bench is gone as is the incense smell. When he stops to huff and decide where to go next a strange crawling sensation ripples up his back. It feels like a hand pressing slowly against the middle of his spine, toying with the skin there until it erupts into gooseflesh. Shinji knows a different shade of this feeling, warmer and deeper, held close and secret inside him. Zanpakuto come in genre's and no matter the difference in the strength and shape of the soul like will always call to like.  

"Aizen." He whips Sakanade around and hits-

A tree?

He yanks it back to no avail. Sakanade is well lodged in there.

He can feel her shiver and stretch. He pulls again and she screeches in his head, his hollow joins her. In  the confusion of the noise he lets go of the hilt. The feeling of a heavy sliding illusions yanks him down. Wrapping around his throat, pulling at his tongue. His head starts to spin as he chokes on nothing. He manages to grab Sakanade again and the sensations snap away. 

He spits on the ground. “What the fuck.”

Sakanade shivers in his hand and then bursts free of the tree. She is silent.    

The air shivers in front of him and three tree's emerge from a shatter of light. Plum tree's twisted around each other. At the base is a pool of brown water. The tree's smell like they're rotting and the smell of stale water is cloying and overwhelming. He jumps back and holds up his sword. 

“Come on,” He flares his reiatsu.

A figure hobbles forward from the tree's. She's hobbled over on all fours, bone white sticking out from her ribs. Her shinigami robes are patched over with white and knobby bits of bark. Her long dark hair hangs down her back littered with dead leaves and tiny feathers. With a sharp breath Shinji realises what he’ll see when she raises her head.

Her head comes up and it is a beautiful mask. The bone so white and thick it looks like metal. Her eyes are inhuman and when she opens her mouth a dead black tongue rolls out. She closes her eyes and screams. He feels it echo throughout him, all the way back through the years, back to the beginning. Her eyes snap open again. Yellow on black.   

\--

"Oh, yeah." His 7th seat says. "That's just the ghost."

No part of him sings the ghostbusters theme just as no part of him wishes he was the kind of dickhead that scared his subordinates enough that they'd never casually mention  _ ghosts .  _

He stalks, captures and interrogates the rest of his seated officers and all of them say unhelpful things like  _ oh that's just the plum tree's  _ or  _ it stole my scarf once I swear  _ or  _ can I talk to you about advancement, sir.  _ After about three hours he rewards himself by going to the onsen and fuming in the water. Thirty minutes after that he has to sit across from his actually apparently competent seated officers who are totally comfortable giving  _ ghost  _ as an answer.

"I remember," His 7th seat shrugs. "I just thought we were like the 6th, ya know? Just rolling in spirits."

Shinji sighs. "What do you remember?" 

"Plum blossoms." He says firmly. "And some ganky water."

"And that's fine with everyone?" Shinji says slowly. "That we have a ghost?"

"Oh, well, Captain Aizen said it was fine-" His 4th seat says and abruptly looks ashamed of himself. Momo takes his hand gently and squeezes.

"We'll try, sir." His 3rd seat. "But it's just- there's a ghost! we know that and so we stay away because..."

"It's bad for you!"

"And  _ he  _ said not to."

"He's gone but that doesn't make what he said go away."

"And it seems reasonable," His 3rd says, "to, uh, avoid apparitions."

"You know," Shinji says at a loss, "we're ghosts to people."

"Oh, yes!" His 5th seats says, "but we have swords and kido!"

Idiots. Adorable, fucked up idiots. Shinji collects himself and gives them all a moment to do to the same. "Alright. Who is Koki Suzume?"

"Who?" They all say at once. "Who?"

"Who is the ghost by the three tree's?"

As a group they take on the slack expression that had so terrified him on Momo. "There is a ghost near the tree's. We should stay away from the tree's. Bad things happen near the trees." 

Shinji flares, hot and bright and in all the Hirako colours. He drowns out whatever malevolence has come into the room with them and fills it with himself; the brutal, overpowering part unafraid to fight, kill or bleed for his own. 

"This will stop," he says quietly. "This will stop right now." 

Reiatsu is about will, after all, and whatever this is maybe sheer obstinacy can break it's hold.

Momo is the first to recover, Tobiume striking at him with an almost audible snap. He allows it after a brief struggle. They come around at their own pace a few looking at him with wide believing eyes: this is the first moment they've believed he could be a captain. It is acceptable, if passingly annoying, that it had to come with subjugation. When everyone is propped up and recovering, Shinji withdraws completely. 

His 3rd seat frowns, "I don't remember her, sir. I can remember around her though."

"She was tall?" His 9th seat says.

And that breaks open a flood.

"No, she was taller than you. We had the competition remember and we had to take heights-" 

"But she ate with Shimura-"

"No, Hayate."

"Shimura in the evenings, Hayate in the mornings because they had patrol."

"And she ate the really gross dumplings, she was the only one who did but we kept them for her because-"

"She won the bet, the one against Shimura. I think it was fucking hilarious, actually? And we still have it on the menu-"

"How-"

"I never returned her pen!"

"Why-"

"She was in book club!"

"Her hair was long."

"It was."

"I never saw it down."

"I did." Momo whispers. "It was lovely."

Everyone falls silent. Shinji holds his breath. Momo's face is awful, like a just struck child or a startled bird. Her hands unclench and she takes one big shaky breath.

"I have to go." Momo says desperately. She leaves at speed, reiatsu tight and unhappy.

Shinji dismisses everyone and takes his sweet time wandering to Momo's quarters. She has them situated overlooking a garden. The room itself is small, a weird punishment designed to keep lieutenants in mind of their place, but it is well kept and covered in warm personal belongings. He doesn't bother to respect her personal space. It's not really in him most of the time and as the person responsible for her ability to do her job he figures they can all get over it. She's sitting in the middle of the room with her knees bent under her. Tobiume is on her bed as is her sash. She refuses to look at him when he enters. 

"The three trees," she says quietly, "we had lunch at the twisted tree's when we were going through training schedules. You can smell the river at dusk."

"She had favourite trees. I remember why she loved the branches but I can't remember what colour her eyes were." Her mouth makes a tremulous O shape. "Oh god. We forgot about her completely."  

Shinji tucks an arm around her loose enough to let her pull away. She doesn't. 

"I asked. I think I did. I don't know why but I missed her- I think she might have been-"

Momo doesn't descend into tears so much as appear in the middle of an assault of them. Her face turns from white to red to white again, chest heaving. There's so much grief in her, the wrong kind, the kind you can do nothing about because there's nothing as tangible as a dead body. There's just something that's gone and someone that's been left behind.  

With nothing else to offer he leaves her to cry.


	2. Body and Soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my fucking god this was a slog. I meant to finish it before I started Uni. Previous note still applies so lots of stuff is left kind of open ended. There's probably not quite as much detail in this as I originally intended but I think everything still makes sense. I might come back and rework it a little when less busy. Thank you to the little messages of support they really helped. Have fun!

 

Shinji is not the sort of man to have nothing to do on a Friday night. He likes parties, clubs and spending two hours coordinating a hairstyle, outfit with a pleasantly late arrival. He likes having snotty opinions about horderves. He likes having snotty opinions in general. Recently he has lacked occasions for which to be obnoxious and better dressed and while most of that can be blamed on being the comeback kid some is his own responsibility. He’s not the most hospitable person and he likes most people for the way they twist and dance. That, plus the beautifully crafted rumors of his depravity, has left him socially desolate. Still he’s not one to let something like someone else’s personal desires get in the way of having a good time. After some fluffing about his rooms he heads out into the night. If the fun won’t come to him, he’ll just crash the party.

He finds the low hum of Kensei’s reiatsu at a bar in the 9th. As he moves closer he picks up hints of other high seated officers including Ukitake and the thunderous white noise of Zaraki.  

When he enters he finds chaos. There are tables and chairs strewn about, a chalkboard sitting pride of place on a stage made of crates, at least three open barrels of beer and Kyouraku napping with his arm around a bottle of sake right in the middle of the floor. Someone -Ukitake, most likely- has thrown his kimono over him. His snores add to the symphony of incredibly drunk shinigami. All around the not so tall, not so wide room are banners with the division numbers on them. Most of them have been defaced with crude jeers and puns. Kenpachi has installed the 11th at the end of the stage furthest from the banners and the 7th is opening up another barrel of booze. Under the banner for the 10th he spots Matsumoto, Kira and Momo. The rest of the divisions mill around doing as the please. Shinji parses out from the chatter that some misguided, broken soul had decided to try having a trivia night. Poor thing.    

He heads over to the banner for the 9th where Kensei is scowling up a storm and drinking too much for someone with his lightweight constitution. Mashiro is curiously absent from the proceedings. Shinji can’t even begin to guess how that happened. 

Kensei turns that scowl on him. "What?"

"You're really tense for a guy who can punch his way through anything." Shinji tilts his head. “How the hell did you keep Mashiro away from this?”

"Are we back to shitty Superman jokes?"

Shinji says nothing. Kensei is not usually this kind of pissy.

“She went home for the night. We’re not talking.” Kensei takes another too big gulp of alcohol. “I’m a dick, apparently.”

Shinji takes a seat and pours himself a drink. He immediately regrets it. Kensei drinks pig swill. 

After a very long moment, during which Kensei’s eyes stay at middle distance and Shinji forces another drink or two in, Kensei turns his eyes to the floor. Shinji doesn’t react in any way but to pour him another a drink. Kensei gulps it down. "Mashiro is causing problems."

"She is alive and awake."

"No, Mashiro’s presence is causing problems. Tousen left some pretty fucked in the head idea’s behind in the 9th. Like he looked at all the pride I had in the place and shat on it." Kensei takes another too big gulp of drink. “Somedays I hate this fucking place but I’m man enough to know I need it. Or something like it. Why the  _ fuck  _ did this shit happen to me?”

Shinji claps him on the shoulder, that's all anyone who isn't Mashiro is going to get out of him. Kensei looks at him with all the misdirected anger that lives inside him, Shinji accepts it as he would from any of his family. "Fuck off, Shinji." 

"Off and fucking." He ruffles Kensei’s hair because he's wild and unconcerned about his long term health, but all Kensei does is ruffle it back to it's former position and keep on drinking. He moves on even if it takes some conscious effort to remember that Kensei is not someone Shinji is personally responsible for.

He heads over to the next most familiar set of reiatsu. Matsumoto has her arm around a very, very drunk Kira with her lips smashed to the side of his face. She's telling him a funny story. Kira is giggling, or maybe sobbing, with laughter. Lisa’s little Nanao has her head resting gently on Matsumoto's other hand where it sits on the table, her fan tightly clenched in her fist. It's hard to tell if she's asleep or just closing her eyes to avoid the madness. 

"Ladies." He says with a smile. "And Kira."

"Gentlefolks." Matsumoto yells cheerfully. Her lips only barely come off Kira’s cheek. Poor boy. "What brings you here, Captain?"

Shinji eyes her speculatively. "Word got around."

"Sit down." Matsumoto waves a hand, nudging Momo as she goes. "Momo, Momo wake up."

Momo’s head comes off the table, a tiny bit of drool clinging to her mouth. She is  _ really  _ drunk. Shinji sits down next to her and gives his least toothy smile. "Hinamori." 

"Hi." Momo sighs out. "Is it our turn yet?"

Kira sighs and inclines his head towards the stage,  "Renji offered to answer for us."

"Camellia." Abarai says to Hisagi. 

Hisagi sighs and accepts the answer. "You're actually right, this time."

"Fuck yeah." Abarai says sitting down on the stage. Hisagi looks at him with disgust but keeps on moving.  

Both Kira and Matsumoto make matching noises of despair at Abarai’s general everything. Momo tugs his hand until he obligingly tilts his head.

"Kira had a rough day so Matsumoto is telling him about the time she threw all of Gin’s clothes into a lake and then tricked him into going to a different lake and then pushed him in and then she made him swim out again but it was through some really hungry leeches and he couldn’t wear fundoshi properly for like a month and it got infected eight times and that's why he has scars near his butthole." Momo takes a deep breath. "It's Kira’s favourite mean Gin story. My favourite mean Gin story is the one where she drank him under the table and dumped him at the 11th for missing her graduation ceremony. The men in the 11th  _ love her _ and hate anyone who makes her sad."

"Mean Gin story?"

"Sometimes you have to say the good stuff too." She frowns. "Except us. He sucked, everything was bad."

Shinji grins. "Cheers."

"Are you going to make me leave because this is only my third bowl I’m allowed to stay until my fifth." She slaps her hand on the table. "Ha, fifth."

"What happens at four?" He asks, already pouring her out another one.

"Um." Momo shrugs. "Dunno. Shiro doesn't like it."

"Then I predict I’ll have a blast."

He hands her the drink and she swallows it fast. He pours himself one and pretends he doesn’t see her hungry eyes follow the bottle. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t have an alcoholic for a second but there’s no harm in keeping an eye in her. The questions come around again, Matsumoto giving a very witty answer Shinji is sure everyone will forget come morning, he suspects that’s half of why she bothered. He does give Momo her fifth drink and a sixth as Renji comes stumbling back in search of his own hair tie. He doesn’t find it but he does find Kira’s grabby hands and a good smack on the ass. He’ll have to tell Rose that. Abarai leaves with a piece of undoubtedly important paper and a bit of a limp from his encounter with Kira. 

Abarai and Hisagi meet between the stage and Hisagi’s last revolution of the tables. Momo puts her head in her hand and groans. “He needs to  _ stop. _ ”

Matsumoto laughs, “Just let him have this.”   

"Camellia." Abarai hands the paper to Hisagi. This time he lies down on the stage, hair aflame and uniform gaping open. The one with the eyelashes from the 11th hands him a bowl of sake and pats him on the head. 

"For fucks sake, Renji." Hisagi hisses. 

Momo groans. “We always lose.”

Shinji ruffles her hair. "So is Nanao drunk?"

"No." Momo sighs out. "She's sober, as always, but the 8th just did a really hard bunch of missions out in north Rukongai and Matsumoto may have put her to sleep. She was just frowning at everyone and mumbling to herself to stay awake, anyway. We’ll wake her up when the game is over."

Shinji hasn’t noticed so much as a pause in this ridiculousness. "How do you know when it's over?"

"Hisagi leaves. We’ve never gotten all the way through."

"Camellia." Abarai says for the third time. It’s not even his turn to answer. Hisagi’s reiatsu flares. 

Shinji clicks his tongue. "I don't suppose someone wants to tell Abarai about his crush?"

Momo removes Nanao’s fan with a bit of stealth and lightly taps his knuckles. Her blush is high but she doesn't flinch. "Don't be mean." She looks at Abarai again, tilts her head. "There's a running bet on who figures it out first."

"What, Abarai figures out he's got it bad for his boss?"

"Captain, not boss." She says, idly flipping the fan between her fingers. "Apparently neither of them have figured out that "running fire fight" is like the shinigami equivalent of pigtail pulling."

"That makes Zaraki the world’s biggest lover." 

Momo laughs, uncommonly loud, and drops the fan to cover her mouth with her hands. She looks at him askance and mouths  _ sorry. _

Before he can say something heartwarming and bonding, Matsumoto’s breasts appear a few moments before the woman herself and Momo is being tucked away into the loving embrace of the 10th. “I think that may be enough for you.” 

Momo pouts. “I’m fine-”

“Ah, naughty captain slipped you an extra drink.” Matsumoto gives him a wink that somehow manages to be reproving. “He should know what to do with lightweights.”

“I guess I owe someone an apology.” Shinji says with amusement. “Not quite sure who _. _ ”

That gets him a sharp smile. “A lady always finds a way to let a guy know.”

Shinji may be a tiny bit in love. 

“Ah, well,” he raises his hands in defeat, “she’s yours for the night.”

Matsumoto gives him a very arch eyebrow as if to say  _ yes, obviously,  _ and then rolls her cute little clique out the door. After a moment to digest Shinji looks to the banner of the 9th where Kensei is rapidly descending into something quiet and ugly. He sighs to himself and then pulls himself up to look after his friend. That's probably enough for tonight, anyway.

\--

It's been a policy of his to make his subordinates come to him. Or not come to him. Or have anything, really, to do with his day to day life. In hindsight this made Aizen’s job stupefyingly easy. This does not mean he is making a huge effort to correct his behaviour. He would, or he'd think about it, but this is a life in which Momo is his to deploy at will. 

Except that he can't seem to find her.  

"Oi," he says as he accosts a random 11th seat in the hallway, "where’s Momo?"

“Oh! Sir! Capain Hirako, sir!” He says, “she might be in her quarters?”

Shinji grumbles under his breath, scaring the 11th seat shitless, but turns his ass around and marches down to Momo’s quarters. At this time of day it’s teaming with people already up and about and going about the day. Momo should be one of them. 

She is in her quarters, half asleep by her reiatsu, but there’s something...dampened about it that makes Shinji reconsiders his initial plan of assholery. Nothing about Momo says she’s the type to medicate or self harm, not in the direct sense, so the fact that there’s a barely there quality to her reiatsu is setting off alarm bells for him.

Cautiously he toes open the door and prepares himself for something awful.

Momo’s clothes hamper is kicked over, half her books are on the floor. She’s pulled off her pants and dumped them on her personal desk. The girl herself is lying on her front under a thick pile of blankets, one still socked foot kicked out, the other foot barely peeking out. Her hair's a mess, little bits of it hanging at odd angles and Shinji would put good money on it being much longer the last time he saw her. There’s a smudge of pink lipstick across her brow and at the edge of lips. Now that he’s standing in the room looking at the evidence Shinji breathes a little bit easier.

He kneels down next to her and tugs on her hair. “Hinamori?” 

“G’ away,” she mumbles in a cute Rukongai accent, “‘m sleepin’.”

“Mo~mo,” Shinji sing-songs, “time to wake up, my little peach.”

Momo burps and turns over, pulling her pillow over her head.     

Shinji grins. All of this points to little Momo still being under the influence.

Carefully he pushes on her reiatsu. After a few minutes she reacts. First by getting annoyed, then startled, then abruptly awake. Momo’s eyes spring open comically wide and she hisses, “Captain Hirako!” Before diving into the fetal position, clearly remembering that she is not wearing pants. Her forehead goes an alarming shade of red and her blush is probably a little too high.

Shinji doesn’t laugh at her because he wants them to be friends. That is the only thing that saves her.    

Shinji holds a hand to make sure she doesn’t have a fever. "What’s up with your hair?"

"Kira cut it." Her voice is raspy with overuse and over drinking. She takes his hand and pulls him down again so she can whisper. Still  _ very _ drunk, then, if her lack of caution from last night has carried over. "When we got back to the 10th, I had to sneak past Shiro so he wouldn’t freak out about me being drunk. It took awhile because I was being extra sneaky. When I got there Kira was hacking at Matsumoto’s hair. Hisagi was asleep and he's most of their impulse control when they’re together. So then she did his and they burnt it as an offering? I think? There was a lot of chanting and warding off Gin’s ghost with their middle fingers. I was pretty drunk."

"You still are. What happened to yours?"

Momo yawns. "I just wanted to be included. It's not as bad as Nanao though, Matsumoto took a chunk out of hers by accident. Nanao’s not gonna go out with her for a whole month. It looks bad, right?"

"I’ll ask Rose for a recommendation. Undoubtedly Kira has been caught looking unkempt by now."

"Don’t you know any hairdressers?"

"Like I’d let anyone here do it. I've got a man in Tokyo."  

"Oh."

She quiets down and just looks at him for a moment and he lets her. She tucks her head down so her eyes just peek over the blanket. 

"You don't drink a lot." He observes.

"No sir." She says meekly. "I have morning drills."

"Oh no," he smiles at her, nicely, and stands up to his full height. "I have morning drills, you have staying in bed and drinking water."

"I can't possibly-"

Shinji turns and strides out the door before she gets any further. "Too late." 

Shinji walks over to where he thinks sword practice should be held, catching his unsuspecting 5th seat by the arm and telling them to let the others know where to find him for the lesson and then sets about warming up by himself. 

Sakanade is a warm comfort when he draws her, not bothering to call shikai or do anything but run through the first 30 kata’s taught at the academy at high speed, one flowing to the other. He does the next 20 at a higher pace and then settles into a variant of the Hirako style that relies heavily on deceit. It’s not as flashy without a direct opponent but it’ll give the noble born in his division more of an idea of who they’re dealing with. He knows when his men arrive because the courtyard goes from peaceful to deathly silent.

Shinji is just working some kido into his warm up when someone yells  _ shit  _ and drops something.

He stops mid-movement and lets his attention drift entirely to the man who’s dropped his laundry all over the ground. 

Shinji tilts his head at the man and nods. “Carry on.”

The man gulps and gathers his things up. He bows quickly and respectfully before running away.

With the spell broken Shinji pulls himself up to his full bearing as a captain and lets the sheer control he has over the space sink into his soldiers. “I’m your captain, names Shinji. Don’t use it.”

Several people nod, others are too awestruck to move. 

“In a moment I am going to show you what I expect you to be able to do at the end of this lesson. I’ll do it twice, that’s it. The rest is up to you.”

Most of his people seem to take the challenge in stride, determination sliding into their faces and reiatsu, a few look daunted or ill and he makes note of them to slide along to Momo and their own squad leaders.

“Cool,” Shinji says disinterestedly, “here we go.”

\--

By the end of the lesson Shinji is convinced that one more year with Aizen and this lot would be unsalvageable. That is, most likely, his insane standards talking, but there’s something in the practiced edge of their sword work that feels like long term sabotage. He ponders this over lunch and into the beginnings of the afternoon. It is less fun to be in his office when Momo isn’t around to be cute and efficient. 

As if called by his boredom, or more likely by her dedication to actually doing her job, he feels Momo approach his office. She sticks her head in the door. “Are you free?”

Shinji almost raises an eyebrow, that’s the most informal she’s been with him, but catches it. “Of course. What’s up?”

She has a thin file in her hands. “This is what we have on Suzume.”

He frowns. “That little?”

“We think,” she firms her back and meets his eyes. He pretends he didn’t see the flinch. “We think he, that is, former Captain Aizen may have...vanished her.”

“You’re an expert in kido. Is that possible?”

“Yes.” She says with an ill smile. “I can’t attest to how but I have some theories.”

“What do you think we should do now?”  

"We’ve all seen his shikai and until I know more about the kido..." She shrugs "I’d ask Matsumoto."

"We should keep this in the Division."

"We’re the 5th, sir. We can't." Momo gives him a tight smile. "Matsumoto carries a lot of people’s secrets anyway, people would feel comfortable with her. Since she's from the 10th too you can have Toshiro treat it as an internal affairs situation.That would keep everyone else out of it."       

He raises an eyebrow. "Internal Affairs is the 10th now?"

"Switched from the 3rd when Shiba Isshin became Captain of the 10th. He was the only true noble Captain around. I guess it just stayed with them since the 6th is forbidden from doing it." 

"That's amazingly funny. He’s Kurosaki’s  _ dad _ ."

Momo’s eyes widen. "No way."

"That guy has sensitive Gotei information." He marvels. "Come on then."

He sets off at what he thinks is a casual pace, true to her rank Momo keeps time with him, only the slightest pulling of her mouth suggesting that it’s difficult. Usually he’d accommodate her but right now he needs to know she can and he suspects she might need it too. If this goes poorly it won’t be him disillusioned by the Gotei.

Divisions don’t work together. They don’t cooperate. Internal Affairs especially are notorious for being a bunch of hardasses. He’s totally prepared to be turned away at the door just as he’s prepared to respond by ramming through it.

Momo grabs his haori. “Captain.”

“Yes?”

“We should go around the side. I know a secret way in.”

Clever girl.

“Lead the way.” 

She takes him around the side to a little crack in the wall. With a calm hand a few whispered words she rips away an illusion. This is interesting information if somewhat inappropriate for him to have. Momo seems to have a sense for where they’re going. Around a block, across a way, down a little side part, to what he recognises as 10th’s headquarters. Momo jumps up the steps and throws open the door. "Yo Shiro!"

Perhaps later he’ll scold her for being inappropriate with a fellow captain. He’s a half dozen steps behind her by now so he gets the first snap of cold and her responding giggle. Shinji knows they’re friends, knows that Hitsugaya is more likely to cut off his arm than even approach menace with Momo, but Shinji is her captain and he isn’t here to be friendly. 

"Hinamori." Hitsugaya hisses. He catches sight of Shinji and clamps up, switching to captain mode seamlessly. Too late though. Shinji caught him ruddy cheeked in a way he’d  _ never  _ want someone like Shinji to see.

Poor boy walked right into it. "Come on now, Toshiro. Shouldn’t we be acting like Captains?"

"Then you should take care to address me as one."

"Short temper?" Shinji grins at Hitsugaya’s anger. "Calm down, hot stuff, I have some business to discuss. Hinamori, go find pretty Matsumoto would you?"

Momo smiles apologetically at her friend. "Sorry Toshiro." 

“Sooooo-”

Hitsugaya relaxes the hold he had on his reiatsu while Momo was in the room. His strikes Shinji at his throat, cold and primal. Hyorinmaru is wrapped tightly around him, deceptively small in size. The boys control is excellent. With that in mind Shinji rearranges some boundaries for this conversation. “Let me save you some trouble here. The 10th has no information about the incident in question.”

Shinji must find out where people are getting their information from. “Why’s that?”

“Why,” Hitsugaya readjusts the paperwork in his arms, leaving Shinji to marvel once again at how this kid get through the day.  “Why would I tell you that?”

“‘Cause you like Momo.” Shinji replies simply. “Suzume was a friend of hers.”

“Do not,” and there’s the strike at Shinji’s throat again, as serious as the dragons growl, “presume to use my feelings against me.”

“Fair enough. God knows I’d be pissed if someone did something to my friends.” He smiles. Sakanade throws her weight behind it, sun as dry as the desert cutting through. “But, kid-”

“Captain.”

“Right. See. Momo and the 5th are kind of mine to be nosy about, you know? So as a captain I’m going to ask again. I’m even going to be nice.”

Hitsugaya levels him with an unimpressed look.

“Think of it this way.” Shinji shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m not the kind of man to put my subordinates lives at risk when I don’t have to. I don’t wanna fight. I want to know if we’re on the same page.”

“Captain Shiba.” Hitsugaya says at length. “The former captain of the 10th.”

Shinji raises an eyebrow. “Isshin Shiba.”

He nod. “He has the information. What little of it there is.”

“This Shiba still around?”

With the kind of emotional depth only found by those who really genuinely believe the world is out to get them, Hitsugaya dredges up an ever deeper level of unimpressed to bestow upon him. He sighs. “Please do not make my day any longer than it has to be.”   

Shinji shrugs. “Well I don’t know how you expect me to find him.”

“Please leave.”

Shinji does, at length, inviting himself to take a turn through the 10ths lovely streets. He occupies his time sweeping the market place for Momo’s reiatsu and finds it curled up quite companionably with a cat. He reassess that and confirms that it is quite literally a giant cat. He finds Momo and her giant cat sitting outside on a picnic blanket, two large containers of something in their hands. When on earth did Soul Society get a milkshake vendor?

“Cap~tain!” Matsumoto calls. “Come it with us!”

Haineko. Giant cat. 

“Not today Matsumoto. Me and Momo have a date with some paperwork.

“Eh?” Matsumoto turns to Momo and wags a finger. “That is a  _ bad habit  _ you should not let him get into.”

Momo laughs sheepishly. “He’s not as much as a pushover as Shiro.”

“Oh?” Matsumoto smiles. The look she casts him is tinged with approval. “Don’t let me get in the way then.” 

Momo returns the smile as she stands, dusting off her pants. “Never. See you Matsumoto!” 

Matsumoto waves them off, lying back in a lump in the sun. 

Momo falls into stride with him. “Did you get what you wanted?” 

"It went well." He decides in a moment to let her in on things. No need to make certain mistakes twice. "Though going forward you should know there's no point apologising for me."

Momo bites her lip. "I’m sorry for overstepping."

"It ain’t that." He waves a hand, relaxing his stride so she doesn’t have to work to keep up. "I won't play games with you or the division or anyone who could seriously hurt you or the division but there's little battles Captain’s play with each other and I’d rather keep you off the field."

"I don't understand."

"Nice people don't become Captains. We are, every single one of us, a spectacularly nasty person."

"I don't believe that could be true." She says determinedly. "What about Komamura and Ukitake? Unohana?"

"Don’t know Komamura too well." He allows. "But Ukitake and Unohana are well over 1000 years old. They’ve got some skeletons kickin’ around."

"But then,” Momo muses, "is it a surprise then? That Aizen was so..."

Shinji shakes his head. "You working on bankai?"

"Ah," Momo frowns. So not really then, or at least not with intention. 

"Hmm, with the exception of complete freaks like Ichigo, it takes decades to find and master your bankai. It takes decades on top of that to come to term with it. Your zanpakuto is a reflection of your soul and bankai is the ultimate offensive power inside it. Some people have very straight forward one’s, like Kensei’s or Ichigo’s which is a natural extension of shikai. Others like me or Rose have something far more intense. Just as it could take a guy a while to get over his soul being a girl it could take him a while to get over his soul turning everything around him into acid."

"Is that...?"

He grins at her all  _ wouldn't you like to know?  _ "By the time you come out on the other side you've had to, literally, fight the darkest part of yourself and accept the answer. Whatever you are, deep inside, you’ve had to accept. Your zanpakuto will never accept anything less. It's that quality Yamamoto tests for when looking for a Captain."

Momo considers this for a moment. "Wouldn't that make you kinder?"

Ah, shit. He’s developing a soft spot a mile wide for this kid. "Maybe, but you'd have to be kind to begin with. God knows power doesn't help." 

"Why would that make you a Captain then? Why just that?"

"The 12th wasn’t the 12th before Kisuke got his hands on it, the 13th wasn’t the 13th before Ukitake got there, even the 10th wasn’t the 10th before Toshiro took it over. That acceptance is one of the core parts of any command personality, it allows you to shape yourself and others. All leaders, good and bad, lead; all followers, for right or wrong, follow. It's a force of nature. And so are we."

He slows down so she has more time to think. 

She looks at him and nods in understanding. "Shiro would never use me like that."

"No?"

"No." 

"Alright." He grimaces. "Still not calling him Captain though."

She makes a dismissive noise. "No one really does." 

\--

He phones home. To his great delight Hiyori answers. It goes incredibly well for a violent and antisocial definition of well.

"I am on my goddamn knees, Hiyori!" He shouts into the phone. He’s in his office so people are reasonably alarmed by it. Ah well, get ‘em used to it early.  

Hiyori hisses at him. "Fuck you, you’re probably standing on the ceiling you fucking asshole!"

"It's not that hard!"

"Oh? Then come do it yourself you moron."

"Now that just sounds like you miss me."

"How could I when you’re always calling? You’re like a fucking stalker."

"Don’t be stupid," Shinji says purposefully dismissive, "there are way cuter girls to stalk."

"So you  _ are  _ a stalker." She says sweetly. "Better let all the girls know to avoid stupid ugly- Oi Lisa-"

He doesn’t bother to play innocent. Lisa would sooner trust in the Central 46 than believe it. "Yo, Lisa."

Lisa sighs. "Stop egging her on. She's just going to wail on Hachi now."

As if winding Hiyori up isn’t one of his greatest missions in life. "Well."

"Pathetic." Lisa says immediately.

"I need you to do something for me."

"I’d guessed. What?"

"I need you to find Isshin and ask him about something hinky going on at the 5th while he was the Captain of the 10th."

"...Why?"

"Aizen’s a fuck."

"Shinji."

"I’m not allowed to speculate, as this is technically a joint affair with the 10th, but he may have hollowfied a seated member of the 5th."  

There’s silence from the other side of the phone; then Love’s standing up and asking for his coat, Hiyori’s sigh of utter disappointment following him out the door. Lisa lets him hear it, having most of the argument before he can start it, then says, "We’ll go ask and bring what we find."

"A phone call will do."

"No." The phone distorts, most likely Lisa leaving the warehouse. "It’ll take a few days even if I sick Hiyori on him. Is that too long?"

"Nope." He sighs. "See you."

Lisa has already hung up.

\--

With much go between the 5th, 8th, 10th and 13th Divisions agree to assist each other informally. One of the few perks of being a captain is that occasionally, if enough of you can point in the same direction, you can get a great deal of things done  _ and _ avoid the paperwork. Yamamoto informally knows and is casually kept up to date with what’s going on and in exchange no one is allowed to ask him for resources or openly question any decisions that may have been made. It’s not exactly a win/win for the 5th’s reputation but if it helps at least get them some closure, Shinji will have to wear it.  

Speaking of wearing it; today will take him to the 12th and the suspicious and condescending eyes of the most powerful captains not named Yamamoto, Kenpachi or Unohana. He’s just thrilled to be invited, really.

Kyouraku picks him up at the gate of the 11th. In a gale of flower petals. 

Shinji whistles. "Not such a bad date after all."

"Who says that?" Kyouraku asks just shy of earnest. "Really, I need to know for the sake of my reputation."

"Make it worth my time and I’ll give points for style."

"Ah, that would be something. Have you contacted Urahara?"

"Pfft. Urahara has the 12th bugged like it was his own backyard."

"He bugs his backyard?"

"You don't?"

Kyouraku clicks his tongue. "Just as well then. It could be very tiresome to acquire Kurotsuchi’s permission to share information. Why those two won't just kiss and make up I will never know."

"Don’t burden me with those images." 

"Look around then. The women of Seireitei have only grown more lovely in your absence."

This is the 11th so Kyouraku is wrong about the bevy of beautiful women hanging about the place. Still it's improved magnitudes in odour and general colour since he last had any reason to linger in the residential areas. There are women here, scarred and drunk and carrying the general badassness of the 11th, but a few are doing the usual girl thing wandering around and looking in stores. In fact there's a distinctive pink scarf floating around followed by glasses-

Shinji smiles and inclines his head towards an izakaya. "Including Nanao and Matsumoto."

"So it is." Kyouraku nods, adjusts his hat and waves his arms around to catch Nanao"s attention. She immediately narrows her eyes, obviously making sure this is in fact allowed by her scheduling. "Nanao! Naaaa-na-oooo!"

Nanao’s glasses flash but Matsumoto punches her on the shoulder before she can make a move. As she turns to follow Matsumoto. Kyouraku pouts heavily. "Did you see, Shinji? That was so rude."

Shinji raises an eyebrow but wisely says nothing. 

Kyouraku shrugs. "Must be a SWA thing."

They continue on to the 12th and it’s creepy atmosphere. Shinji remembers when this place was Hiyori’s. It was never anything but loud, never anything but living, even when Kisuke and Mayuri were the big dicks in the place. The oppressive silence and watchful eyes are just another reminder of how things have fallen apart. He and Kyouraku stand there for five weird minutes before a boy with gills in a lab coat crack the door open and ushers them inside. He leads them down a twisting labyrinth of dark corridors to a wide set one with  _ Captain  _ emblazoned on it. Little gill boy leaves without a word. The door opens with a bang to reveal Mayuri and his daughter in their standard ridiculous fare. Mayuri’s face twists in displeasure. 

Shinji nods at them. "Mayuri."

"You." Mayuri scowls. "You’re here."

Shinji raises an eyebrow. "Yeah? Kinda my problem?"

"Don’t stray too close to the pink lines." He squints. "Or do. It can really only be to my benefit."

"How are you comfortable with this guy?" Shinji mock-whispers.

Kyouraku side eyes him. "Don’t be difficult."

Shinji shrugs but follows Mayuri into his personal lab with little complaint. He even stays between the lines. Kyouraku snorts and follows at his own sedate pace. Mayuri’s lab is deeply unsettling in a way that Shinji thinks the X-Files could be proud of. Has someone shown him that? Maybe he took tips. He’d spent enough time with Hikifune to know what science equipment should look like and the long endless silver tubes and oddly inconsistent lighting are not it. They come to a centre of sorts where the rest of their odd little bunch has already assembled. Hitsugaya looks deeply put upon, Ukitake is cheerful as always and standing next to him is an odd man in a hat and sandals.

Kisuke’s fan is already fluttering wildly. "Oh! We’re all here!"

Shinji grins, "Kisuke who told you?"

"Well, I missed Hiyori terribly-"

Shinji snorts. "Lie."

"-and she must have missed me too-"

"Completely unbelievable." 

"-so we had coffee and cake and she told me-"

"Liar." Shinji drawls. "Hiyori tracked you down to inflict violence and you got a  _ suspicion  _ that someone, somewhere, might need your input."

Kisuke snaps his fan closed. "More or less."

“Follow me.” Mayuri walks away without pause. “Don’t touch anything.”

Shinji gives Kyouraku a speaking look as they follow Mayuri. Kyouraku looks at him from underneath his hat but says nothing. As they walk Kisuke palms odds and ends, casting little bits of what Shinji suspects is nothing at all into the corners. Kisuke is a  _ good  _ spy. He’d never let them see his hand. The fact that Mayuri is slowly losing his mind trying to keep track of Kisuke is icing on the cake.  

“I have discovered the nature of this mess.” Mayuri says loudly. Shinji suspects it’s a poor ploy to make Kisuke stop messing with him. “A zanpakuto with mind altering abilities and/or minor reality warping abilities.”

Something clanks and drops to the ground. Kisuke is standing beside a machine with a fetus in it, fan fluttering wildly and  _ who me?  _ expression on his face.

“Don’t mind me!” Kisuke hollers. “Just doing some spring cleaning!”

"As I was saying," Mayuri’s eye twitches violently, “clearly this zanpakuto affects reality perhaps altering it to mask the true actions of the wielder. A far more advanced illusion type than Aizen’s. Perhaps an evolution of it. If not an outright new type of zanpakuto altogether. My preliminary findings suggest there is no way to directly affect the illusion unless, like Hirako, you simply stumble right on top of it. If this is indeed a new type of zanpakuto then I can’t honestly say what the limits are. I am certain it can hide itself from us, however.” 

"Should that be possible?" Ukitake whispers. "A zanpakuto capable of that much..."

Mayuri sneers. "Possible? We have moved far beyond possible."

"What he means is," Kyouraku places a steadying hand on Ukitake’s shoulder, "how can just a zanpakuto be capable of this?"

Kisuke’s fan flutters ever faster. "Well if you ask me-"

"I do not." Mayuri hisses.

"If you ask me," Kisuke continues cheerfully, "amplification is not necessarily beyond the bounds of what the hougukyo can do." 

"As in you’ve tried it?"

"No, I value Benihime far too much."

Kyouraku makes an interested noise. "So he amplified it?"

"Oh no." Kisuke gives them all a small grimace. "He took a piece of his zanpakuto, embedded in the girl and then used the hougukyo to hollowfy her."

"Why?"

Kisuke shrugs. "Who knows?" 

"Why would you do it?"

"If I did," he gives Shinji a quelling look, "and I haven’t, Shinji. It would be because of what happens to zanpakuto when you hollowfy them. Especially if he was planning to do it to himself. Power transference can emulate the abilities so you give a portion of your power to someone else, hollowfy them, and see what happens to your ability." 

That sounds about right but-

Shinji shakes his head. "I’m not sold on this."

"Oh?"

Shinji frowns. There’s just something...too clinical about this. Over the years he's dreaded knowing what Aizen did to his division. And it's  _ his  _ division. He chose Aizen as a lieutenant. He saw through him. He failed to see all the way to the core. If Urahara or Kurotsuchi where the ones with Aizen"s madness than maybe he could buy it, but everything Aizen did was motivated by some feeling, some need to express something. Loneliness, Ichigo had said, but there was something completely unhinged about him 101 years ago, something that can't be explained by a lack of companionship. No, if there's something in the 5th it will be rooted in whatever it is Shinji couldn’t make out the first time. Aizen would never have left it at simple experimentation or Shinji will eat one of his better hats.  

\--

Shinji makes meticulous records of what his subordinates do wrong during training. He’s very careful to delegate reading, reviewing and giving these critiques to his more direct subordinates. There are cracks in the chain of command wide enough to drive a truck though. Little lies, subtle dishonesty. Some of it is the break in trust from Aizen, other parts of it are Shinji’s doing. He’s too similar, too different, too much a bastard, too much a soft heart. Some of it is Momo who is two parts a walking disaster and three parts the only reason the 5th isn’t on fire. Without some kind of understanding soon the 5th will burst into flames all on its own, no disbandment needed.  

To that end, Shinji’s dragged the most problematic elements of his cohort to a nice lunch out in an effort to try and get a better grasp on what he’s doing wrong with them. It’s been delightfully difficult to pry them out of their formality and he had hoped a change of scenery would help. Alas, he has to dismiss them back to their duties no closer to figuring it out. He stays at the restaurant long enough to have dessert, eyes on the bustling street. Things change, things don’t change. Sometimes it feels like he never left at all, other times it’s like he’s a watching a movie. Here and not here. He morosely turns that over in his head, getting steadily more unimpressed with it all-   

-And then he gets pulled out the window and thrown into the street. 

He skids on his ass for a moment, landing undignified in a lump. There’s a flash of triumphant reiatsu. "Hiyori!"

Hiyori snorts. "What the fuck are you doing wearing a tie?"

"I've been wearing them for years."

"I know about your shit taste, fuckface. I mean why are you wearing it with-"

"Children." Lisa says reprovingly. In her hand is a sheaf of papers. "We’re here on business."

He nods to the paper in Lisa’s hand. "That what I asked for?"

"It is." Lisa sniffs. "I’ll be going now. Dinner at the 3rd tonight."

"Leaving so soon? You’re taking all the beauty with you. It's breaking my heart, Lisa."

Hiyori’s teeth grind. "I am  _ still here _ ." 

"I have a lunch date with Nanao. Don’t break him Hiyori. They’ll only force Love to take his place."

"Oi." 

Lisa flips him off.  

He turns back to Hiyori and raises an eyebrow.

"It's stupid." She growls from her perch on his shoulders.

"It's cool." He says placidly, running his hands across her clenched fists in a way he's been stealthily training her to respond to. She eases up just enough for him to be able to move back to avoid the full force of her strike to the nose. There’s no blood at all which pisses Hiyori off visibly. "Come on, there's this place I wanna take you for lunch."

Hiyori looks at the still dirty plate at his table that suggest he clearly just  _ had  _ lunch but chooses to ignore it. "Aren’t you the Captain?"

"Like Kisuke didn't ditch for lunch."

"Uh no he stayed inside all day and fucked around making skinless gigai and being an asshole."

"Maybe you’re right."

"I was there."

"Hmm."

"Asshole." She says with less heat. 

Now this he hates. He’s no different than a year ago and as much as he knows he can't lose Hiyori, Lisa, Love or Hachi the fact is that they are there and he is here. 

"Hiyori." He says very seriously. Deadly even.

She's all set to rip him apart, he can tell, but at the last second her hand goes to her abdomen. She doesn't soften so much as accept the necessity of leeway. "I ain’t mad. None of us are. It's just- It's different. As much as we might all pretend we aren’t good at change." 

"I-" 

Hiyori snorts. "I know it's hard for someone as stupid as you but try to remember that you ain’t the only one who worries."

"Well then." He slouches down and starts moving again. "I’ll pay for lunch."

"Of course you will."

"Don’t pig out too much though. You ain’t my date."

"You got too many teeth for a regular 10 out of 10 like me, moron."

There you go then. Everything will be alright.

\--

The stupid butterfly floats in in the middle of a food eating competition between Hiyori and someone’s 9th seat. Shinji's betting high since these morons don't know about Hiyori’s hidden second stomach or her complete and utter willingness to throw all concepts of elegance and honour out the window. Irrationally he hopes the small thing will float right past him and ruin someone else’s lunch. 

It doesn't. He plucks it out of the air with a sigh. "Emergency Captain’s meeting."

Hiyori snorts. "Good luck."

"Oh Hiyori." He admonishes, "this is not the end for us."

"Don’t you dare."

"Come quietly and no one has to be embarrassed."

"I’m not even a fucking shinigami anymore."

"By your metric neither am I and I have to go."

"Shinji."

"Hi-yo-ri."

"I ain’t going quietly."

Through a series of evasions and quick footwork he manages to trip her up enough to fold over his shoulder. Once she's firmly wedged and extremely indignant he does his best -kind of, not really- to move quick and smooth in direction of the 1st. Halfway through Hiyori, mostly loud instead of violent, remembers her skill at kido. He doesn't hear her chant or he absolutely would have thrown her over the wall into the 2nd and have done with her entirely. The first few balls of fire are nothing more than flashes in the pan blunted mostly by his reiatsu. So she starts applying it - _ two fingered _ \- to his ass. His haori is fine. His hakama are not. His hakama are not as fire retardant as promised. The first time she tries to apply it right to his asshole he flips her mid step into a princess carry. 

And that is, more or less, how he shows up to the meeting.

Everyone but Kyouraku, Ukitake and the Kenpachi is accounted for. Shinji makes a show of putting Hiyori down, funny faces and all, and uses his haori to hide the worst of the damage.

Rose looks more than passingly dismayed. Kensei scowls. Unohana pays him no mind and following her lead neither do Komamura, Soifon or the Kuchiki. Hitsugaya looks pissed, though Shinji will put that down to the world’s most unfair puberty, and Mayuri is mostly looking at Mashiro.    

Kensei grunts."You may wanna leave that outside." 

"Fuck off you pervert!" Hiyori hisses. Just for that Shinji picks her up again. This time she goes over a hip.

"Oh Shinji." Rose pinches the bridge of his nose.

Shinji grabs one of her ponytails. "What was that? Did you say something?"

"I’m going to rip all your hair out, stuff it up your ass and make a toupee!"

Kensei frowns. "That didn't make sense." 

"Screw you too!"

"Still a fine pair of lungs, Hiyori!" Kyoraku bellows. He’s brought Ukitake, Lisa and Ukitake’s 3rd"s. 

"Oi!" Then, at a loss for how to approach Kyouraku, she turns back on Shinji, hitting him hard enough in the thigh he buckles. "You ain’t a pirate and I ain’t your dainty fucking princess so put me  _ the fuck down-" _

"Hiyori!"

"I don't suppose we can chop her in half again." Kensei mutters. 

Mashiro punches him on the shoulder. "Way too mean, Kensei."

"Hiyori would make a fine princess." Ukitake says diplomatically.

"That's not the problem." Lisa replies. "Hiyori we have to go grocery shopping."

Now on the ground Hiyori rolls forward into a crouch. "Wait till I’m finished."

Shinji draws himself up to his full height just to piss her off. "I have somewhere to be." 

Hiyori’s teeth grind. "Under my foot eating garbage."

"Like you could, midget."

"We really do have to go Hirako." Ukitake says, making no move to go anywhere. 

Hiyori jumps up and grabs Shinji’s haori. "I’ll gut you."

"Yeah? You gonna grow a foot in the next three hours midget?"

"I-" Hiyori is plucked from his front and hung over Lisa’s shoulder. Lisa immediately turns and begins to walk away. "Put me down! He is  _ taunting me! _ "

"Violent little girls get put in the naughty corner." Lisa says, nodding to Ukitake and Kyouraku as she passes them.

"That better not be from one of your porno’s!"

Lisa slaps her on the ass. Hiyori rolls straight back into yelling. Lisa slaps her ass again. "Nanao and Hinamori agreed to help us with the shopping. If you want to make his life really miserable tell her about the time Shinji decided to join a band."

Hiyori begins to laugh like a tv villain. "The 80’s."

And that's why he is occasionally glad he left them at home. The amount of damage Lisa and Hiyori could and would do to his reputation is tremendous and frankly unreasonable. "Goddamnit."

"A band?" Ukitake inquires politely. He dismisses his 3rd seats and moves to the point of the group, effectively forcing everyone inside. 

Kensei grunts affirmatively. "Shinji has done a lot of embarrassing shit in the last century."

Rose looks over his shoulder at them. "It was an avant garde ten piece jazz ensemble and I promise you there was no dignity in it."

"Used dry ice as an instrument once." Kensei glances at him accusingly. "Stored that shit in the kitchen."

"It was atmospheric." Shinji throws his hands up. "Don’t start holding that stuff against me."

Kensei growls. "What do you mean start?"

Ukitake hums. "I never understood the 80’s or most of the later half of the 20th century to be honest." He smiles. "But I did love disco."

Kuchiki, of all people, snorts. "That is somehow unsurprising." 

Ukitake shrugs graciously. 

"You had that brief metal period." Kyouraku says. 

"Oh?" Rose looks interestedly at Ukitake. "Heavy or?"

"Oh far more symphonic. It felt like such a natural extension of both genres."

Rose goes on to have an in depth opinion about the state of the genre. Ukitake listens regardless of whether or not he actually cares. With careful deliberation Kyouraku catches his attention as the enter the assembly hall and nods as if to say  _ see? It can be easier. Someone just has to go first. _

Shinji tilts his head but holds his tongue. 

Yamamoto storms past them. "Get in line! You are all late. I didn't call you here to gaze at you.  _ Get in line! _ " 

\--

"Aizen’s a fucking asshole." Hiyori says without preamble over dinner.

They’re assembled in Rose’s suspiciously spacious quarters. There sitting around a western style dining table groaning with food and drink. Kensei did the lion’s share of cooking but Rose swears up and down that Hiyori snuck in and whipped a few things up. It is a closely guarded secret that Hiyori is an extremely good cook when she feels like it. There’s octopus, three side dishes, a huge pile of pasta, fish and a few bowls of rice. The pasta is Hiyori’s.   

"Yeah," Lisa says dismissively.

Love nods. "We all tried to kill him."

"Hmm." Hachi reaches for the pasta. "Was there a particular moment of assholery you wanted to discuss?"

"Can't it wait?" Rose whines. "The family never gets together anymore."

"Nah," Hiyori snags a piece of octopus off Rose’s plate. "So you know that thing you wanted us to look up?"   

Shinji slurps his noodles, gets a glare from Love, and hazards a guess. "It wasn’t hollowification."

"Then what was it?" Hacchi asks.

"Bankai." Lisa answers. "Not his."

There’s a few moments of thoughtful chewing. 

"Maybe this should wait until after dinner." Rose says. Love and Hacchi nod their agreement. The rest simply continue to eat.

"Nope." Hiyori pops the p. "Isshin has the same fucked up memory stuff that Hinamori does."

"How?"

Lisa clears her throat, when that doesn’t work she takes a long drink of water. "Our working theory is that her zanpakuto had similar abilities to  _ his _ ."

Hiyori swallows loudly before adding, "But when he lost his powers it lost it's effect on him."

"Our powers still work on humans." Love points out. 

Kensei sighs. "We’d have to ask Urahara for answers."  

"But what exactly did it do?" Mashiro asks. 

Shinji lets that sit in the air while everyone clears their plates. There’s nothing but thoughtful clinking of plates and too loud slurping for quite awhile. That, and Mashiro’s abysmal table manners. Rose sniffs delicately four more times than usual. When he’s sure it won’t upset anyone too much he says, "There’s only one person who’d know for sure."

"I’m not going." Hiyori scowls. "Just the thought makes me too sick to eat."

Rose sighs mournfully. "I  _ said  _ we shouldn't discuss this over dinner." 

Kensei spears a piece of octopus and stuffs it in his mouth. He makes a show, pointed largely at Mashiro, of chewing quietly with his mouth closed. When he’s done he points his fork at Lisa. "Shouldn’t it disappear when she died?"

Lisa eyes the fork but forgoes calling out his rudeness by dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. "That's where the fuckery begins."

Hiyori and Lisa exchange uneasy looks. 

Hiyori looks Shinji dead in the eye. "She ain’t dead."

\--

Shinji convenes a meeting of the Committee Dedicated To Un-Fucking the Unfuckable to discuss Issues. They’re gathered in his office, midday sun casting a ludicrous glow on the conversation. Once he’s done explaining he faces the grim faces of Kyouraku and Kisuke. Neither Ukitake nor Hitsugaya could be spared. Kyouraku is solemn and unsurprised, just how much does that man know anyhow? Kisuke is the picture of guilt wrapped around his ever present aura of calculation.

"Hmm." Kisuke grimaces. "Perhaps it was negated by the quincy."

Yet another terrifying aside from Kisuke. "Anyway. He says there’s nothing anyone can do from what little he was able to get out of her before her power started affecting him. He doesn’t even know who it is just that she has to be purified and  _ then  _ killed. Just trying to kill her will break the control she has on her power and her Hollow. That’s how Isshin thinks he got whammied with it.”

Kyouraku lets out a long breath. Tired and old, he says, “I don’t think I can be of any further help. Let me know when you take it to the Old Man, eh? Jushiro or myself will come along.”

“Yeah,” Shinji nods, “thanks anyway.”

Kyouraku smiles at him, genuine and small. “Well. Miracles do happen.”

Shinji picks out a mean scowl and puts it on. “Buzz off.”

When Shinji looks to him Kisuke is staring in the direction of the trees. After a long moment he smiles quick and sad. “I may have something. I’ll be a few hours.” 

Then he’s gone. 

Shinji has only just tumbled that day’s pile of paperwork and gleefully hidden what he couldn't be bothered with in Momo’s pile when Kisuke appears with something sword shaped bundled in cloth strapped to his back and two coffees from starbucks.

“That better be a dark mocha chip cream.” Shinji remarks dryly. “I won’t be happy with anything else.”

Kisuke looks at the cups and makes a show of sniffing them both. He hands Shinji one and takes a seat on the floor across from Shinji. He assumes a formal business like position and Shinji feels compelled to take him seriously. Kisuke pulls the bundle off his back and lays out two beautiful intricate swords clearly made as a set. They nearly glow with a purity of reiatsu.  

“Here we go,” Kisuke mutters, “these are two asauchi I...borrowed from Nimaiya.”

Shinji narrows his eyes. “I feel like plausible deniability is my best bet with you.”

“Oh most likely,” Kisuke waves a hand, smiling weakly, “I was keeping them for something else but...”

“Oh? What do they do?”    

“One can transfer one form of reiatsu to a container or contain reiatsu itself without degrading. The other purifies reiatsu to remove hollow reiatsu specifically.”

Shinji is not a stupid man, and two swords that purify and transfer large amounts of reiatsu...”Ichigo.”

“I’ll think of something. To purify your poltergeist use the sword that purifies first to make her hollow recede, purify the girl, then stick the second sword in the ground to absorb the remnants of her bankai. I’d rather not shoot the 5th with quincy arrows.” Kisuke says solemnly. He takes a long obnoxious gulp of his coffee. “He’d think it was worth waiting a little longer for, I’m sure.”

Shinji looks at the swords and knows he won’t give them back.

“Sorry kid.” He mutters.   

\--

The Committee gives its preliminary findings to Yamamoto by dropping off a few packs of tea imported from the human world. Ukitake  _ insists  _ upon going with Shinji.  

“What are friends for?” Ukitake says with a beautiful smile. 

Shinji accepts it and goes on with the day. 

“Ah,” Ukitake say a they enter the 1st division gates, “if you wouldn’t mind, I might explain?”

Ukitake is never forceful when he doesn’t have to be. There’s something in this information that bothers him and for some reason he wants to frame how Yamamoto hears it. “Sure.”

Ukitake smiles and leads the way. The 1st is clear of personnel all the way to Sasakibe’s desk.That has Shinji frowning internally already. Sasakibe is standing in front of the door to Yamamoto’s office when they arrive. He looks alarmed to see them.    

“Ah, Captain Ukitake. You’re expected.” Sasakibe frowns. “Captain Hirako.”

Scratch that. Sasakibe is surprised to see him. 

How interesting.

Shinji crosses his arms. “We got beef.”

“Ah,” Ukitake says ruefully, “we have some  _ news. _ ”

Sasakibe nods. “I see. Yes, that will be fine.”

“Great!” Shinji exclaims throwing his hands up. Sasakibe gives him a warning glance. 

Ukitake sighs, a little put out, and approaches the door. “In we go then.”

Yamamoto is standing with his back to them in front of his desk. Part of the reason his office is so far away from everyone is the low level burn of his very existence. Shinji has an uncomfortable urge to loosen his tie.

Yamamoto half turns. “What?”

Ukitake throws his hands up, the way Kyouraku might, and says, “It’s not hollowfication. An untested bankai. Certain measures will be taken by Hirako here, that were thought of by Urahara. It’ll be a neat circle don’t you think?”

Shinji frowns because all of that sounds  _ very  _ Kyouraku. Old Man Yamamoto fusses for a moment with some papers before assembling a stack and turning to stride past them. “Very well then.”

Wait a minute. He looks at Ukitake who looks pale and triumphant for some reason, then at the old powerful man that’s about to breeze past without so much as glancing at him. As Yamamoto passes them Shinji scowls. "You’re not gonna lift a finger?"

Yamamoto doesn't pause. "This is something for the 5th to work though."

Shinji sneers. "Of course it is."

Yamamoto’s staff hits the ground. Shinji feels the breath rush out of his lungs. 

The Captain Commander turns around in a slow deliberate fashion. "I didn't reappoint you to soothe your feelings."

"Oh?"

"No." Yamamoto takes a casual stance, hands on his staff, feet apart. "I have three captain level shinigami. They could fill the position tomorrow. I've done worse than promote unfit men to positions of power."

Yamamoto weighs a measured portion of his power on him. Shinji grits his teeth and pushes back. Yamamoto holds steady, eyes coming open in one slow blink before closing again. "But they’re young. With young men’s hearts and minds and ideas of honour. Of what men will honour. You’re a shrewd, underhanded, cunning man and I have never once considered that you might have betrayed your company. That is a far more comforting quality in these times than any moralising about honour, power or duty."

Shinji feels his hollow snap awake at the continued threat of reiatsu. With the kind of will that can only come with age he holds it back. Yamamoto’s eyes blaze open dark with controlled fury. His reiatsu tastes like pure fire to the darkest part of him. Something he could drink down like good whiskey. When it’s like this all he can do is listen to the monster and chain it with his own reason. Yamamoto keeps up his battering ram waiting for some sign Shinji doesn’t know to give him. Figures Soul Society wouldn’t believe in safe words. 

Shinji grimaces, too busy holding onto his darker impulses to try putting on a mask. "You really need me to give a shit, huh?"

Yamamoto sighs. It fills the whole room just the same as his fury. "Yes."

"Alright." Shinji replies, putting his cards on the table. "For the sake of Soul Society and all that jazz."

Yamamoto’s burning eyes fall shut taking what feels like a tonne off Shinji’s shoulders. 

\--

The night comes. At the turn of true dark Hacchi casts a barrier over the 5th to put them to sleep. Shinji dresses quickly and quietly in the dark, the faint blue outline of the spell protecting him from the barrier bright over his heart. He folds himself down into jinzen letting the endless golden spires and arched glasswork of his inner world calm him until it’s time to go see the monster.  At 3am he heads to the trees, Sakanade awake and ready, and steps over the line into the heart of the spell. Dank water rises and the air fills with ugly hollow reiatsu. White bone explodes into existence wrapped around the chained and emaciated form of a woman.    

The worst part is that he immediately recognises her.

Maaka Suzume -or as she's now known Koki Suzume- was the niece of the incredibly long serving Maaka Hioshi, her family almost as much of a staple of the Gotei as the Kuchiki if nowhere near as famous. She even had kin inside Central 46. Her face is the same perfect oval of her families, a little too wide lips, huge eyes and a small nose. Her grey eyes light with recognition too.   

"I remember you." He lowers the point of his sword slightly. 

"I remember you, too." She smiles and it's absolutely heartbreaking. "Welcome home, Hirako Shinji. Have you come to destroy us?"

Shinji remembers Suzumes first day in the 5th less than 6 years after his appointment. They served most of their time together and he usually let her organise the catering at functions to her own tastes entirely because he found how eclectic they were amusing. With that in mind he pushes back his gut wrenching horror at her condition, his deep rooted disgust for the man who did this to them, the volatile roll of his absolute failure to protect someone he was charged with, and pulls up the man he's become in the last 100 years. Visored.  

"Nah."  

Well. Something has to stay the same.

"They threw you away, they-" It's his words with her voice. There’s nothing but air behind them and his strings opening and closing her mouth.

Shinji crosses his arms, unimpressed. "There’s nothing you can say that Hiyori hasn't bellowed."

"So what  _ do _ you intend?"

"Honesty.You then me." 64 million dollar question here we go. "He never achieved bankai did he? Yours is an illusion type, a good match for Kyouka Suigetsu’s  _ true  _ nature."

"It is possible for a shinigami to take another’s bankai." She acknowledges. "That's not why he did this to me. My turn. Why aren’t you scared?"

"I’m a hell of alot more of a monster than you."

" _ I’m  _ scared." She swallows. With her mask on it’s grotesque and hard to watch. "Is he gone? I can feel these spells weakening but I’m afraid that might be the worse of the options."

"Locked away. Defeated by a 15 year old. Named strawberry."

"A good rubdown for his ego." Suzume says demurely. "I am very afraid, captain. And I know I don't have any more time. You survived your hollowification?"

"Yes."

"I will not survive mine."

"For the good of the Gotei-"

"No. They don't know me anymore. Someone from my family has served in the 5th for the last 400 years and we will be forever forgotten." Her eyes shine a sick yellow. "Whatever it is it best be soon."

Shinji smiles wryly and produces the first sword. Suzume looks at it dubiously. "How did this happen?"

"My bankai has the ability to alter reality as well as reveal illusions and tricks. I found it while meditating under this tree. And then when I was sure about how to use it I took my little flock to that man. Imagine his surprise when the horridness of his soul was laid bare in front of us. He caught me and bound me here under his abilities. Experimented on me until he could create a liquid that mimicked my abilities. He had to cut out my zanpakuto to do so. I cannot call her to me anymore. I cannot stop the effects." She sags in her bonds. "I know you have to kill me and I know you have brought something to remove his influence from me."

"And the haunting?"

"I don't want to hurt them. They need to stay away from me so I make sure they do." Suzume says in a small voice, "everytime one comes near I just think about how good they'd taste. How sweet, bloody and lean the soul is."

Shinji knows that feeling all too well. "You'll die when I do this." 

Suzume smiles with crooked teeth. "It's alright. I am ready to be whole again in my next life. The pain is horrible." Her smile drops from her face. "But you would know then, wouldn’t you?"

"I’m sorry."

"Okay. I’m ready to go now."

Shinji looks for it in her eyes, then presses the tip of the first asauchi into her chest. Chains spring up from the ground and wrap around it, wrapping it from hilt to where it enters her body, the chains break with a pulse of light from the asauchi. Suzume breathes in sharply as light continues to pulse from the asauchi, lighting the bone covering her body and pushing it back inside her.   

As the limbs of hollow white recede from her body something else moves forth. A young girl covered from her ankles to her collar bones in feathers leans over Suzume and presses her lips gently to her hair. The feathers fall from the girl’s body and latch onto Suzume forming a beautiful kimono decorated all over with birds. When the last feather falls the girl crouches down next to Suzume and begins to sing. The birds on the kimono open their wings to fly off and away, piercing the edges of Aizen’s illusion. Each strike of the bird’s beak makes a mark on the spell. Cracks form all over. By the time the last three birds have flown off, Shinji knows it won't make a difference. Suzume"s bankai is too new and untested to stand a chance. 

Her zanpakuto begins to cry.

He moves forward and presses his own power against what remains of Aizen’s. It buckles uneasily under his fingers. If Suzume hadn’t used her bankai he's not sure he would have stood a chance at getting through. He keeps pushing until his hand goes through, then his arm, then everything else. Suzume sword -and it is wrong that he doesn't know her name, wrong that he doesn't know who it is that helped him- reaches up to grab him and pull him down to her. She looks at him and then at Sakanade. She opens her mouth but there's no sound. Gently she takes his hand and places it to her head. Her mouth starts moving again and he tries to follow along.

"You want me to perform konso?" 

The sword spirit smiles gratefully and tries to place his hand on Suzumes head. Suzume growls in frustration. It's then he realises she probably can't feel her zanpakuto. He raises Sakanade and gently presses it to her head. Suzume looks up at him. Her face falls to understanding and peace.

Sakanade uses his distraction to push through and out manifesting beside him. Shinji can only imagine what this must look like from the outside. Sakanade is a reflection of himself in many ways; she wears her hair long and is never, ever unkempt, but she holds all his viciousness and unyielding need to care with an ease he's never managed. Her hand folds over his and they are together, no hollow between them, as Suzumes soul knits together again to move on to her next life. Suzume gasps once and then disappears.

\--

He sticks the second asuchi into the ground sometime in the AM. Undoubtedly someone is going to have a big fucking snit about misappropriated materials but that is going to be someone else’s problem. The 5th deserves a win and by hook or crook he's going to give it to them. 

He’s still there more or less minding his own business when Kisuke shows up. There’s no Mayuri following.

"Not in the mood."

"Is it working?" Kisuke’s voice is sidling toward anxious. 

Shinji grunts. "Couldn’t say."

Kisuke rolls his eyes. "Did it work?"

"She's gone. The effects of her bankai are permanent though. They’ll never remember."

"Good thing you have a long memory." He pauses, eyes dark and shadowed. "Konso?"

"Yep."

"It didn't go unnoticed."

Hollowfication, konso performed by a captain  _ and _ an untrained, unrestricted bankai? "And yet."

"That would be your lieutenant," Kisuke scratches his chin, "one of the 12th seats woke her up. She's organised the kido users into performing a mass  _ see me not  _ type spell. Quite interesting, it must be her own design."

An illusion, huh? "That old man will shit kittens."  

Kisuke smiles small and genuine on his otherwise grieving face. Shinji knows that look like the back of his hand  _ If I’d been smarter, If I’d been better, If and if and if.  _ He doesn’t indulge in it as often as Kisuke who lives and dies in the memory of his failures but more often than not he’s allowed the somberness to drag him in too. Not tonight.  

From the tip of his blonde hair to the bottom of his big toe Kisuke is a hard man to fathom. In acknowledgment of this Shinji has put very little effort into understanding his reiatsu or his spirit. Maybe it’s that Shinji is, for the first time in a long time, utterly present in a moment but at the edge of his senses, in the silence and the brightness of Momo’s spell, Shinji can see the dip and weave of a woman’s hand. For a moment Sakanade looks to her left and inhales. When she exhales Shinji knows there is something macabre and wonderful resting her head on Kisuke’s shoulder. Shinji lets the awareness go and concentrates on the ground underneath him.  After a long mournful silence Kisuke turns on his heel and leaves.. 

"What, that was it?" Shinji calls after him.

"Yep." He waves a hand. "See you around."

Shinji crosses his arms with a smile. "What an irritating man."

Momo comes jogging up. Her hair's a mess and she’s still in her cute pyjamas. Tobiume is slung over her shoulder. She runs full tilt towards him like the world’s on fire and he spares a moment of feeling old for feeling proud.

He smiles at her. “Suzume has moved on.”

Momo skids to a halt, face red and puffy. "I’m sorry but I don't know who that is." There is real distress on her face. On the faces of all his men and women.

"That's okay." He doesn't smile or reach out or be anything other than what he is in that moment: the Captain of the 5th. "We’ll figure it out."

They stand with him for as long as it takes. Some cold, hungry, confused. More than a few are sporting heavy bags under their eyes and the fatigue of too many days uncomfortable. But they all stand there under the crumbling of Aizen’s illusions. Momo is straight backed and proud. They all are. Proud of who they are. He’s proud of them. 

Eventually the asuchi turns bone white 

\--

When he’d told the Captain Commander what he intended to do the old man sighed the exact way Shinji’s dad used to when he was being a little shit. It’s the kind of association that makes him like the man better. The details of the occasion are gently taken from his hands by Nanao when he interrupts Momo’s day off to foist his problems on her. Secretly both of them are  _ very  _ glad she takes the responsibility. Unlike Momo, Nanao fears no administrative duty and needs permission from noone, not even the Soul King himself, to organise the Gotei for her own purposes. 

To that end the Gotei is let off in shifts of three hours to pay their respects to Suzume. She had friends in other divisions and the Commander himself had worked with her family. That her own division are the only people who will never be able to remember her clearly is a bittersweet note in an otherwise lovely occasion. 

His only real input was that everyone wear a bird somewhere on their body.    

It’s night time now and the day long festival that filled the streets of the 5th with laughter is dying down. Shinji is standing by himself, drinking by himself, when a rush of lightning and fire reiatsu strikes across him. Momo bumps his shoulder. Her kimono is bright colours matched by someone with an eye like Rose’s for complexion and decorated with cranes. She smiles up at him, grateful. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?"

"That tree over there where you put the memorial. It's right at the centre of the grounds." 

"You told me that." He says deliberately. She won't know, won't remember, and it seems kind to let her see her hand in this. "You said it was her favourite tree." 

"I hope it was." Momo smiles again, wider, and reaches up to place a small hand on his neck. She tugs until his forehead meets hers. After a few seconds she lets him go and rearranges his cravat.

He stops her, takes her hand gently squeezing. "This is good." 

Momo nods once, already turning away to place her lantern. The 5th gathers behind her. All those not from the 5th leave as quickly and quietly as possible as he moves forward to join her.  

As one they all flare their reiatsu. Wild and free for the young ones on their first commission. More subdued for those who have been around long enough to remember. It's only he and Momo who really have to bank it. Momo and Tobiume soar high and hot like the centre of a controlled flame. Sakanade runs wild within him and he lets the smallest measure of hollow through. Some startle but not a single one of them moves from their place. The youngest tire first falling back towards the food and drink, taking the undefinable promise of hope with them. The long serving are next looking back to check that those they follow are worth the risk. Quietly they disperse until it's just him and Momo standing under the trees, wind flowing, matched equally in strength in the light of the memorial. Sakanade whispers  _ unleash me, unleash me now  _ and since she's so rare to ask, he does. Momo's eyes are closed but she turns around. Tobiume is already in her hands.

He turns Sakanade in his hands and says the magic words, reality whipping around at his whim until- 

Until it's not.

His power can't touch the memorial. It brushes it, passes through it and instead of the world folding under his will there is the chattering noise of swallows taking flight. He’d laugh, or cry, or swear but there's no real reason to. Maybe this touchstone is just what they all need. No illusions, no lies. All that's left is birdsong. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There lives in my heart a Momo-centric sequel to this but it probably won't come out of my hands till Kubo gives me my bae's back.


End file.
